Self-determination law comes into force | tagesschau.de

Those affected have fought for this for many years: today the new self-determination law comes into force. A simple declaration to the registry office is now sufficient to change your gender and first name.

Janboris Rätz cannot do anything with the attributions “male” and “female”. Rätz noticed early on that “this established grid doesn’t fit.” Rätz is non-binary, meaning not male, not female, but somehow both and neither.

Rätz now wants to make this official, delete the gender entry and add the name Ann-Kathrin to the first name Janboris.

“My mother thought until the moment I gave birth that I would be a girl with the name Ann-Kathrin,” says Rätz. And the mother probably wasn’t entirely wrong. This should also be reflected in the passport in the future.

Rätz is now 47 and once moderated the SWR and is now freelance.

Change of gender entry possible since today

In principle, all people who are of legal age can have their gender entry changed or deleted at the registry office. This has been possible so far – but this required two self-paid psychological reports, medical examinations and a court order. This route no longer applies from today. Depending on the registry office, the application costs around 30 euros.

Rätz has also previously thought about having the identity officially registered. But the previous path had too many hurdles: “It was clear to me that it would take forever. I would have had to endure inhumane questions and spend thousands of euros on reports so that in the end a judge would decide who “I am and who I am allowed to be?”

Partial path so far unconstitutional

In recent years, the Federal Constitutional Court has repeatedly called for improvements in the treatment of queer people, including in the so-called Transsexuals Act, which has been in force since 1981 and is the controversial predecessor of the Self-Determination Act that is currently in force. The Federal Constitutional Court had repeatedly pointed out humiliating situations for those affected.

The traffic light coalition agreed on a self-determination law and wrote it into the coalition agreement as a project; it was finally passed in the Bundestag in April.

Thousands of applications since August

Since the beginning of August, trans and intersex people have had the opportunity to apply to the registry office to change their gender entry. According to the dpa news agency, thousands of people used it in the first three months alone. And therefore significantly more people than under the previous procedure. However, the registry offices often did not know how to deal with this; the specific procedures were particularly open.

There must still be three months between the application and the appointment at the registry office, essentially as a legally stipulated cooling-off period. “I don’t know a single person who changes their name and gender on a whim. And even if they do, medical interventions still require close medical and often therapeutic support,” says Rätz.

Separate procedure for minors

In fact, the Self-Determination Act is at no point about medical measures, i.e. about changing a gender hormonally or surgically. It’s all about the entry at the registry office.

Minors up to the age of 14 can only apply for a change of gender if accompanied by their parents or legal guardians. The child must agree to this and must be present at the registry office.

Minors aged 14 and over can submit the change declaration themselves, but only with the consent of their parents or guardians. If they do not agree, minors aged 14 and over can take their concerns to the family court. This sets the standard of the child’s best interests, i.e. it asks what would be better for the person, what they would suffer more or less from. If the family court follows the wishes of a minor aged 14 or over, it can overrule the parents or guardians.

Lawsuits not excluded

For Rätz, the new Self-Determination Act has not yet abolished all discrimination, “but the change of name and gender entry is very important for my peace of mind.”

However, further lawsuits against the law cannot be ruled out; those affected for whom the regulations do not go far enough could, for example, take action against the cooling-off period or other political compromises.