EU: Gender Reassignment Must Be Recognized by Every Member State

Transgender people who move from one EU country to another member state must also be allowed to change their legal gender there. This has been established by the Court of Justice of the European Union in a new ruling, which means that EU countries cannot refuse to update civil registration records if it infringes on a person’s right to move and live freely within the Union.

The case concerns a Bulgarian trans woman — that is, a biological male — who moved to Italy and began her administrative and medical transition with hormone treatment. In Bulgaria, the authorities rejected his request to change his birth certificate because Bulgarian law interprets gender in biological terms.

Bulgaria’s highest court referred the case to the EU Court of Justice for guidance on whether this interpretation is compatible with EU law. The EU Court finds that the refusal to amend a citizen’s civil registration after they have exercised their right to reside in another EU country can hinder free movement and violate the right to privacy, with reference to the Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.

“That right protects gender identity and obliges member states to provide clear, accessible, and effective procedures for legal recognition of it,” the court writes in a press release.

Richard Köhler from the organization Transgender Europe calls the ruling “an important step” toward the legal recognition of transgender people in Europe.

However, the EU Court did not resolve the dispute in Bulgaria; its ruling provides a legal interpretation that the Bulgarian court must now apply in its final judgment.

Must Recognize Same-Sex Marriages

A decision by the EU’s highest court in November last year required Poland to recognize same-sex marriages legally entered into in other EU countries despite its domestic ban, creating a legal precedent throughout the Union.

The case involved two Polish citizens who married in Germany in 2018 and asked the authorities to have their marriage registered in Poland’s civil registry. Officials refused, citing that Polish law gives no legal status to same-sex couples.

After the couple appealed the rejection, a Polish court referred the case to the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg. In its ruling, the court wrote that same-sex couples “must have the certainty to continue their family life when they return to their member state of origin.”

However, the EU Court also noted that recognizing foreign same-sex marriages for the purpose of free movement does not oblige the country to introduce same-sex marriage into Polish national law.