On Friday, European politicians are expected to cast a vote on a government initiative to make it easier for transgender, intersex, and genderfluid people to change their names and gender in official documents.
The “self-determination law,” one of several social reforms that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s liberal-leaning coalition government pledged when it took office in late 2021, would go into effect on November 1.
It may make it simple for people to change their legal gender and first name without going through with the registration. Three months prior to making the change, they would need to contact the business.
According to the current “transsexual law,” which dates back four decades, people who want to change gender on recognized documents must first get evaluations from two professionals who are “sufficiently knowledgeable about the particular issues of transsexualism,” and then a court decision.
Germany’s top prosecutor has overturned additional rules that required transgender people to get divorced, sterilized, and have gender transformation surgery since that law was written.
The new policy focuses on citizens’ legitimate identities. It does not require any adjustments to Germany’s rules for gender transition surgery.
Teenagers can ask a family judge to overturn the new rules, which allow minors 14 years of age to change their name and legal identity with parental consent.
Parents or guardians would have to file uses for the registry office on their behalf if their kids were younger than 14 years old.
No more changes may be permitted for a month after a proper change of name and gender becomes effective. For example, the new legislation allows owners of venues and changing areas to continue to choose who has access.
Nyke Slawik, one of two transgender women who were elected as lawmakers in 2021, said ahead of the vote in parliament’s lower house, or Bundestag, that the new rules would have saved her over a year of dealing with courts, seeking expert assessments and spending nearly 2,000 euros ($2,150).
“We suddenly want to make it easier,” Slawik, a senator with the Greens, one of the governing parties, told ARD television. “Many various nations have done this, and Germany is merely following suit by significantly simplifying this enrollment.”
Earlier in 2023, Spain’s parliament approved legislation allowing people over the age of 16 to change their legally recognized sex without any health guidance, among other things.
In the United Kingdom, a bill passed by the Scottish parliament in 2022 may change the gender title on identification documents by self-declaration. That was vetoed by the UK authorities, a decision that Scotland’s highest civil judge upheld in December.
In other politically liberal measures, Scholz’s government has legalized the possession of limited amounts of cannabis, eased the regulations on gaining German citizenship, ended limits on holding two citizenships, and ended a ban on doctors “advertising” abortion services. Same-sex unions were also permitted in 2017.
