(Berlin, April 12, 2024) – Germany’s parliament on April 12, 2024, passed a landmark law that allows transgender and non-binary people to change their legal documents to reveal their gender identity through an administrative process based on personal recognition, Human Rights Watch said now. The legislation does become effective in August 2024.
The new law replaces Germany’s outdated 1980 Transsexuals Law (Transsexuellengesetz), which requires trans people to provide a local court with two “expert reports” attesting to “a high degree of probability” that the applicant will not want to revert to their previous legal gender. Another harsh aspect of the law, such as medical requirements for identity reputation, had formerly been rejected by the German Constitutional Court.
According to Cristian González Cabrera, senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, “Germany has joined a growing list of countries that are dismantling pathologizing requirements for identity reputation, which have no place in various and political societies.” Germany’s new law sends a strong message that trans people exist and deserve recognition and protection, without discrimination, as populist politicians in Europe and beyond attempt to use trans rights as a political wedge issue.
Trans and non-binary people will be able to visit a civil registry office and change their gender marker and given names with a quick declaration under the new law. No “expert” opinions or medical certificates will be required. The applicant will be able to choose from several gender markers – male, female, or “diverse” – or opt not to enter a gender at all.
According to a 2017 report from the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, under the Transsexuals Law, applicants said that to secure the necessary “expert” reports, they had to disclose immaterial details from their childhood and their sexual past, and even undergo physical examinations. The ministry determined that the legal process could take 20 months and cost on average about €1,868. US$2,000).
The gender recognition reform comes as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists warn of an uptick in anti-LGBT violence in Germany. The federal interior minister claimed in June 2023 that police had committed over 1,400 hate crimes against LGBT people in the year prior. In recent years, there have been numerous attacks at Pride parades, one of which ended in the death of a transgender man in 2022.
The federal human rights commissioner expressed concerns about setbacks for LGBT rights in May 2023. State-level interior ministers made a commitment to bolstering their efforts to stop anti-LGBT hate crimes and violence in June 2023, including through law enforcement training and the placement of designated contact people at police stations throughout Germany.
Legal gender recognition reform based on self-declaration won’t in itself guarantee protection for trans people in Germany from abuse and discrimination. However, according to Human Rights Watch, the new law shows that the government supports the fundamental rights of transgender and non-binary people, which leads to a more comprehensive understanding and acceptance of diverse gender identities.
A growing number of nations have eliminated burdensome requirements for legal gender recognition, such as psychological or medical evaluation. Countries including Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay provide for simple administrative legal gender recognition processes based on self-declaration.
The adoption of such straightforward administrative procedures is in line with international medical consensus and human rights standards. The interdisciplinary professional association known as the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which has members all over the world, has discovered that medical and other barriers to gender recognition for transgender people, including diagnostic requirements, “may harm physical and mental health.” The most recent International Classification of Diseases, the World Health Organization’s global diagnostic manual, formally depathologizes trans identities.
Germany is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees everyone’s right to equal civil and political rights, recognition of everyone’s legal standing, and the right to privacy. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, in charge of interpreting the ICCPR, has demanded that governments support the rights of transgender people, including the right to legal recognition of their gender, and that nations repeal unfair and exaggerated requirements for legal recognition of gender identity.
In Goodwin v. United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that there is a “serious interference with private life” that results from the government’s failure to recognize a person’s gender identity. Since then, the court has ruled that various abusive requirements for gender recognition, like sterilization and other medical interventions, violate trans people’s human rights.
The LGBTIQ Equality Strategy of the European Union (2020-2025) also supports the human rights standard for the member states, which is “accessible legal gender recognition based on self-determination and without age restrictions.”
According to Principle 3, the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity state that each person’s self-defined gender identity is “integral to their personality and is one of the most fundamental aspects of self-determination, dignity, and freedom.
As a member of the Equal Rights Coalition, the Global Equality Fund, and the UN LGBTI Core Group, Germany plays a key role in advocating for LGBT and intersex (LGBTI) rights beyond its borders. In March 2021, the federal government pledged to do more through a LGBTI Inclusion Strategy, which, among its many goals, aims to further Germany’s role in promoting LGBTI people’s rights at international and regional human rights institutions.
“Germany’s reforms to gender recognition strengthen its commitments to LGBT rights both domestically and internationally,” González said. German authorities should continue to advocate for full equality, end all forms of anti-LGBT violence in Germany, and advance anti-LGBT legislation abroad in the wake of this crucial reform to the legal gender recognition system.
