德国通过突破性法律帮助跨性别者轻松更新其法律文件
“我们只是想让一小群人的生活变得更轻松，这对他们来说意义重大。”
作者：约翰·罗素 2024 年 4 月 15 日星期一
德国的跨性别者和非二元性别者很快将能够更新他们的法律文件以反映他们的性别认同，而无需提供“专家报告”。
周五，该国议会通过了一项法律，要求 18 岁以上的跨性别者在登记处简单声明自己的身份，以便更新身份证等官方文件上的姓名和性别标记。 法律还允许 14 岁至 18 岁的未成年人在父母许可的情况下更新其文件。 年满 14 岁且父母不同意的未成年人可以向家庭法院申请推翻其父母的裁决。
《自决法》取代了已有数十年历史的德国法律，该法律在跨性别者及其身份的法律承认之间设置了繁重的障碍。
现有的“变性法”要求变性者必须获得两位“足够熟悉变性主义特定问题”的独立专家的评估，然后才能更新其法律文件。 正如美联社 (AP) 指出的那样，德国宪法法院已经宣布该法律的其他部分无效，包括其手术要求。
新法律于去年八月获得德国内阁批准。 当时，自由民主党司法部长马可·布施曼 (Marco Buschmann) 告诉德国德国电视二台 (ZDF)，跨性别者在满足现行法律要求的过程中称其“非常有辱人格”。
“想象一下，你……只是想过你自己的生活，你不希望任何人有任何不好的事情，然后你会被问到你的性幻想是什么，你穿什么内衣，以及类似的事情，”布施曼说，据报道 美联社。 “现在我们只是想让一小群人的生活变得更轻松，这对他们来说意义重大。”
尼克·斯拉维克 (Nyke Slawik) 是首批当选德国议会议员的公开变性人之一，她表示，根据“变性法”，她花了两年时间并花费了 2000 欧元才更新了身份证件，以反映她的姓名和性别认同。 “作为跨性别者，我们多次经历过我们的尊严被作为谈判的问题，”她上周告诉立法者。
德国议会下院联邦议院上周以 374 票对 251 票、11 票弃权通过了《自决法案》。 据美联社报道，该法案将于 11 月生效。
德国政府性与性别多样性接受专员斯文·莱曼 (Sven Lehmann) 告诉立法者：“40 多年来，‘变性人法’造成了很多痛苦……这只是因为人们希望得到真实的认可。” “今天我们终于结束了这一切。”
据人权观察组织（HRW）称，德国与越来越多的国家（包括阿根廷、比利时、丹麦、爱尔兰、卢森堡、马耳他、挪威、葡萄牙、西班牙和乌拉圭）一起取消了繁重的要求。
人权观察的 LGBTQ+ 权利高级研究员克里斯蒂安·冈萨雷斯·卡布雷拉 (Cristian González Cabrera) 在一份声明中称，要求跨性别者进行医疗程序和心理评估以更新其文件是“病态的”。 他表示，此类要求“在多元化和民主的社会中没有立足之地”。
卡布雷拉说：“当欧洲及其他地区的民粹主义政客试图利用跨性别者权利作为政治楔子问题时，德国的新法律发出了一个强烈的信息，即跨性别者存在并应该不受歧视地得到承认和保护。”
有关的：
日本法院允许跨性别男子在不进行手术的情况下更新官方文件中的性别，这是具有里程碑意义的案件
“这就像我站在新生活的起跑线上。
Germany passes groundbreaking law helping trans people easily update their legal documents
"We simply want to make life a bit easier for a small group for which it has great significance."
By John Russell Monday, April 15, 2024
Transgender and nonbinary people in Germany will soon be able to update their legal documents to reflect their gender identity without having to provide “expert reports.”
On Friday, the country’s parliament passed a law requiring trans people over the age of 18 to make a simple declaration of their identity at a registry office in order to update their name and gender markers on official documents like IDs. The law also allows minors between the ages of 14 and 18 to update their documents with parental permission. Minors who are 14 and older whose parents do not approve can petition a family court to overrule their parents.
The “Self-Determination Act” replaces a decades-old German law that placed onerous hurdles between trans people and legal recognition of their identity.
The existing “transsexual law” required trans people to obtain assessments from two separate experts “sufficiently familiar with the particular problems of transsexualism” before they could update their legal documents. As the Associated Press (AP) notes, Germany’s Constitutional Court had already invalidated down other parts of that law, including its surgical requirements.
The new law was approved by the German Cabinet last August. At the time Marco Buschmann, justice minister for the Free Democratic Party, told ZDF television that trans people who had gone through the process of meeting the requirements under existing law described it as “very degrading.”
“Imagine that you … simply want to live your life and you don’t wish anyone anything bad, and then you’re questioned about what your sexual fantasies are, what underwear you wear, and similar things,” Buschmann said, according to the AP. “Now we simply want to make life a bit easier for a small group for which it has great significance.”
Nyke Slawik, one of the first openly transgender people ever elected to the German Parliament, said that under the “transsexual law,” it had taken her two years and cost 2,000 euros to get her ID updated to reflect her name and gender identity. “As trans people, we repeatedly experience our dignity being made a matter for negotiation,” she told lawmakers last week.
The “Self-Determination Act” passed in the Bundestag, the German Parliament’s lower house, last week by a vote of 374 to 251, with 11 abstaining. It is set to take effect in November, the AP reports.
“For over 40 years, the ‘transexual law’ has caused a lot of suffering … and only because people want to be recognized as they are,” Sven Lehmann, the German government’s Commissioner for the Acceptance of Sexual and Gender Diversity, told lawmakers. “And today we are finally putting an end to this.”
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Germany joins a growing number of countries — including Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay — that have similarly done away with burdensome requirements.
In a statement, Cristian González Cabrera, a senior LGBTQ+ rights researcher at HRW, described requiring medical procedures and psychological assessments for trans people to update their documents as “pathologizing.” He said those sorts of requirements “have no place in diverse and democratic societies.”
“As populist politicians in Europe and beyond try to use trans rights as a political wedge issue, Germany’s new law sends a strong message that trans people exist and deserve recognition and protection, without discrimination,” Cabrera said.
Japanese court allows trans man to update gender on official docs without surgery in landmark case
“It’s like I’m standing at the start line of my new life.”
