I'm someone who whole-heartedly detests any and all forms of discrimination, so I think that it's only natural that this man is going to get a new diploma. It's his right, after all.

Now about the question you asked. Here in Belgium, when a person enters university and has a sex change during the course of their studies, they will initially receive a diploma with their old name on it. However, as soon as that person's new gender has been legally recognized (following a medical examination and such), a new diploma will be given to that person.

Incidentally, my society is extremely tolerant of LGBT people. We're one of the very few countries to permit civil marriage between same-sex couples, with all the same rights as heterosexual marriage. Just look at this map. Adoption by same-sex couples, too, is legal since 2006. Hate crimes and discrimination are practically unheard of here. Case in point. In 1997, a dockworker named Ronny Van Sandt, then aged forty-seven and married since 1974, underwent a sex change operation and took on the name Priscilla. Afterwards, she went right back to working at the docks, and none of her male colleagues had any problems with that. No harassment or anything. I might add that Priscilla's wife Jeannine, while at first a bit doubtful about the whole arrangement, still supported her throughout the whole thing, and that the couple did not stop having sex after the operation.

I know this is a lot more information than you asked for, but it gives me a little glow of pride to be able to say it.

I don't know if someone would be able to do this in Canada, but I hope so. We're pretty left wing about most things- compared to the U.S. anyway. I don't know how we'd measure up to the Netherlands.

I salute you sir.

Good for him, and right on board with the faith in humanity.

As to how such things are handled-- in America, I think it depends very much on the region, because Federal law is a good fifty years behind the rest of humanity. In California, for example, a school would probably not mind issuing another diploma-- New England it would vary wildly from town to town, depending on who was on the school board/university board/what have you. It might be prejudiced of me, but I wouldn't expect much from the majority of the Deep South and midwest.

The thing about this country is, it moves less like a single entity and more like a spooked herd of mustangs-- a few false starts, some charging off in the wrong direction, and nobody runs exactly the same way, but eventually we get all fifty states on the same path, mostly.

Because I am totally left-wing. As for my country, I know California's still working out its Prop 8 issue, but I'm not sure about America's stance on transsexuals or the LGBT community as a whole. I'm glad that things like this are happening, though; at the very least, it's proof that the world is moving forward.

I spend a lot of time worrying about these issues, though. I'm lucky enough to live in a very diverse area, so most of the people in my community are very open and accepting about race and orientation and such. Still, though, I hear about violence and hate crimes happening every now and then, and it scares me. Like I said, I live in a very diverse area, so a lot of my friends are gay or bisexual. It really hits close to home.

I may not be big on gay marriage and all, but it's pretty obvious that if a person changed their name in the duration, that's the one you print.

I don't know how it is in America--maybe others do--but I would hope that since a legal name-change is something that is done, it would make sense to change it on all important documents, including a diploma. I wouldn't expect it to be an issue legally, but then, I'm a bit of an idealist. What makes sense to me isn't always the way things work. I'll be interested to find out if anyone else knows.

~Neshomeh