Legal situation of trans and inter in Germany

The German ministry of family affairs (BMFSFJ) has published an expert opinion on the legal situation of trans and inter in Germany today:

https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/service/publikationen/geschlechtervielfalt-im-recht/114072

The 132-page opinion surveys various spheres of the law, and has a special view on the 2013 reform of birth certificates. In Germany, newborn have to be registered soon after virth, and throughout the 20th century, this also meant that the legal gender was recorded as male or female. Under the new law, the entry had to be left empt if ther were doubtr about the gender of the child. This rule, while partly taking up suggestions by a national ethics committee, was criticised by human rights groups as potentially outing of intersex children (see https://intersex.hypotheses.org/111 ). The legal opinion mainly stats that the new law was applied only in very few cases, and that midwives, physicians and administrative staff are often uncertain about the new legal situation. The opinion also contains a first draft of a new law on gender diversity and proposed changes to existing laws; a key feature is thatlegal gender should no longer be binary, that the ‘non-entry’ of legal gender as introduced in 2013 should be revoced and that it should be made easier to change one’s legal gender (and given name). Also, a proposed change in civil law would restrict parents’ ability to consent to sex-changing surgery of underage children unless this surgery is necessary to save the life or health of the child. For the relavant passages (in German), see here.

For a comment from a French legal expert, see soon https://sexandlaw.hypotheses.org/

Suggested citation: Christof Rolker, Legal situation of trans and inter in Germany, in Männlich-weiblich-zwischen, 28/02/2017, https://intersex.hypotheses.org/4898. Lizenz: CC BY-SA 4.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/]. Letzter Aufruf: 01/12/2023.

Christof Rolker

Prof. Dr. Christof Rolker, Historiker an der Universität Bamberg.

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Christof Rolker

Prof. Dr. Christof Rolker, Historiker an der Universität Bamberg.

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