No medical certificate required – D: soon easier to change gender input

The bill has yet to be approved. According to the Ministry of Family Affairs and Justice, this is aimed at transgender, intergender and non-binary people.

“The Basic Law guarantees the free development of the personality. That also applies to the genders,” said Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) in Berlin on Wednesday. “Being able to make self-determined decisions about the realization of this human right corresponds to a free constitutional state.” In the future, everyone in Germany should be able to determine their gender and first name themselves and change them in a simple procedure at the civil registry office.

One year embargo after amendment
The change in the indication of gender or first name must take effect three months after the declaration to the registry office. To prevent constant changes to a person, a blocking period of one year applies after a new registration for further changes. For minors up to the age of 14, the legal guardians must submit a change statement, which must agree to any changes before they come of age.

German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) said the state previously treated people whose sexual identity differed from their biological sex as sick people. ‘It’s not a disease or anomaly. That was the main criticism of the transsexual law,” said the FDP politician. “A criticism that had constitutional status. That is why the Federal Constitutional Court has declared this law unconstitutional.” This is now being replaced by a law in which the state respects people for who they are.

Procedures that used to be lengthy and expensive
So far the so-called transsexual law has applied. This stipulates that those affected may only officially change their first name and gender after a psychological examination and a court decision. The process is lengthy and expensive. Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has repeatedly declared essential parts of the law unconstitutional.

Queer Officer: “Great Progress”
German government gay commissioner Sven Lehmann has described the resolution of the self-determination law by the federal cabinet as historic. ‘Everyone has the right to recognition of their personality. However, this right has so far been denied to transgender, intersex and non-binary people,” the Greens politician told the German news agency on Wednesday. “The now planned abolition of mandatory psychiatric examinations and lengthy, costly legal proceedings is a huge step forward for these people.” Today is historic.

CDU fears loss of shelters for women
Criticism of the self-determination law comes again and again from the Union and the AfD. Protective rooms, especially for women, for example in gender-segregated changing rooms, would actually be lost by the law, said right-wing CDU politician Günter Krings of the “Rheinische Post”. “Instead of legal certainty, the traffic light with this law creates maximum uncertainty.”

Raab: ‘Germany overshot its target’
Minister of Women and Families Susanne Raab has ruled out a similar legislative change for Austria. “The left-wing traffic light coalition in Germany is clearly overshooting its mark here,” Raab stressed in a statement to the APA. In Austria, there are good reasons for expert reports needed to implement such far-reaching changes. Everyone should be able to live according to their own style. But I find it absurd if you then pretend that it is the most normal thing in the world to change gender every year.” Raab is particularly concerned that the new German law even applies to minors.