EU member states must recognise gender identity changes, top court rules
Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice ruled that EU member states must recognise gender identity changes. (Getty)
EU member states must recognise gender identity changes, the EU’s top court has said in a landmark ruling.
On Friday (4 October), the European Court of Justice ruled that member states must recognise legal changes to gender identity processed elsewhere within the EU. The ruling sides with Romanian trans man Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi who sued Romania after it refused to accept the name and gender identity changes he made in Britain when it was still part of the European Union.
Mirzarafie-Ahi changed his first name and title in 2017, after living in the UK since 2008. He gained legal recognition of his male gender identity in 2020.
‘Contrary to European Union law’
According to The Washington Post, the court said that an EU country’s refusal to accept gender identity changes made in another member state was “contrary to European Union law” and hindered the “exercise of the right of free movement and residence”.
Brexit has no bearing on the ruling because Mirzarafie-Ahi obtained UK recognition of his before Britain left the EU.
“Gender, like a first name, is a fundamental element of personal identity. A divergence between identities resulting from such a refusal of recognition creates difficulties for a person in proving his or her identity in daily life as well as serious professional, administrative and private inconvenience,” the court decided.
In 2018, the court ruled that governments must recognise the movement rights of same-sex spouses, even in countries that do not recognise gay weddings. The ruling referred to the case of Romanian national Adrian Coman, who married American Claibourn Robert Hamilton in Belgium in 2010.
The pair wanted to start a life together in Romania but because the country does not recognise same-sex unions, Hamilton was denied the spousal residency rights to which a wife would be entitled.
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