It is a law that, exceptionally, the entire traffic light government is behind. Instead of arguing, the SPD, Greens and FDP agree this time. Nevertheless, they did not make it easy for themselves, because the criticism of the project is still fierce. The cabinet passed the draft of the new self-determination law on Wednesday.
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) and Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) plan that everyone can determine their gender and first name themselves and change it more easily at the registry office. It is intended to replace the previously applicable “Transsexual Law” of 1981, which those affected criticize as discriminatory. But it was not only their suffering that forced the government to act: the Federal Constitutional Court has repeatedly classified the old law as unconstitutional.
According to Buschmann, the law is helping a small group of people for whom the issue is very important. It’s “about the freedom and dignity of transgender people. The state can no longer treat them like sick people,” says Buschmann.
Paus sees the draft as a great moment for transgender and intersex people in Germany. “The Basic Law guarantees the free development of personality and respect for gender identity. Nevertheless, those affected were discriminated against by the Transsexual Act for more than 40 years. This is finally over,” said the minister.
So far, it has been complicated to officially change your own gender. Many trans people find the 1981 law humiliating, as it stipulates that those affected may only change their first names and gender after a psychological assessment and a court decision. They often have to put up with very intimate questions.
In the future, every adult should be able to choose their gender identity in the passport and decide for themselves between the entries “male”, “female”, “diverse” or “unspecified”. However, this is not without restrictions: the change of gender and name will take effect three months after the declaration. During this time, the data subject has the opportunity to revoke the change. The decision can then be changed after one year at the earliest. Young people from the age of 14 need the consent of their parents. The planned reform only covers the administrative act at the registry offices. The law does not deal with medical questions, such as the requirements for hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgeries.
Union and AfD criticize the reform sharply. It provides “a complete separation of legal and biological sex. We firmly reject such an arbitrary gender assignment,” said the family policy spokeswoman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Silvia Breher. In addition, the new regulation endangers shelters that should explicitly be available to women. The Union takes the interests of all those affected seriously and is open to a pragmatic adjustment of the procedure for changing the name or civil status of transgender people.
The law is aimed at transgender, intersex and non-binary people. According to the draft law, “trans” are people who do not identify or only identify with the gender that was assigned to them at birth. Being “inter” means having innate physical characteristics “that cannot be clearly classified as (only) male or (only) female according to medical standards”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/.” Binary” is defined as a self-designation for people who identify as neither male nor female.
(With news agency footage)