BERLIN — German lawmakers approved legislation Friday that will make it easier for transgender, intersex and non-binary people to change their name and gender on official records.
O “law of self-determination”, One of several social reforms that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s liberal-leaning coalition government promised when it took office at the end of 2021, is set to come into effect on November 1.
Germany, the most populous nation in the European Union, follows several other countries in moving. The lower house of Parliament, the Bundestag, approved it with 374 votes in favor, 251 against and 11 abstentions.
German legislation will allow adults to change their first name and legal gender at registry offices without further formalities. They will have to notify the office three months before making the change.
Existing “transsexual law,” which dates back four decades, requires individuals wishing to change gender on official documents to first obtain assessments from two experts “sufficiently familiar with the specific issues of transsexualism” and then a court decision.
Since that law was drafted, Germany’s top court has struck down other provisions that required transgender people to divorce and be sterilized, and to undergo gender transition surgery.
“For more than 40 years, the ‘transsexual law’ has caused a lot of suffering… and only because people want to be recognized as they are,” Sven Lehmann, the government’s commissioner for queer issues, told lawmakers. “And today we are finally putting an end to that.”
The new legislation focuses on the legal identities of individuals. It does not involve any revisions to the German rules for gender transition surgery.
The new rules will allow minors aged 14 and over to change their name and legal gender with the approval of their parents or guardians; if they don’t agree, the teens can ask a family court to overrule them.
In the case of children under 14 years of age, their parents or guardians must make requests to the registry office on their behalf.
Once a formal name and gender change takes effect, no further changes will be permitted for one year. The new legislation provides that operators of, for example, gyms and women’s changing rooms will continue to decide who has access.
Nyke Slawik, a trans woman elected to parliament in 2021 by the Greens, one of the government parties, recounted her experience of going through the current system a decade ago. She said she was fed up with being asked “is this her brother’s identity?” when she had to identify herself.
“Two years, many conversations with experts and a district court case later, it was done – the name change went through and I was almost 2,000 euros ($2,150) poorer,” she told lawmakers. “As trans people, we repeatedly experience our dignity becoming a matter of negotiation.”
The main conservative opposition blamed the legislation for what it described as a lack of safeguards against abuse and a lack of protection for young people. Conservative lawmaker Susanne Hierl complained that the government is “ignoring the justified concerns of many women and girls”.
“You want to satisfy a loud but very small group, and in doing so you are dividing society,” Hierl said.
Martin Reichardt, from the far-right Alternative for Germany, criticized what he called “ideological nonsense”.
Among others, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Spain already have similar legislation.
In the United Kingdom, the Scottish Parliament in 2022 approved a bill which would allow people aged 16 and over to change the gender designation on their identity documents by self-declaration. This was vetoed by the British government, a decision that Scotland’s highest civil court confirmed in December.
In other socially liberal reforms, Scholz’s government legalized possession of limited quantities of cannabis; relaxed the rules gaining German citizenship and ended restrictions on holding dual citizenship; It is ended a ban about doctors “advertising” abortion services. Same-sex marriage was legalized in 2017.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
