Rights of trans people: German parliament approves law
Published: Friday, Apr 12th 2024, 15:40
Back to Live Feed
After a sometimes highly emotional debate, the German parliament has given the green light for the new self-determination law. In a roll-call vote on Friday, a majority of the plenary voted in favor of the law, which will make it much easier than before to change gender entries on the register.
With a total of 636 votes cast, 374 MPs voted in favor of the law. There were 251 no votes and eleven abstentions. Support for the law of the governing coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP came from the group Die Linke. The opposition CDU/CSU and CSU as well as the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) clearly rejected approval.
The new law is intended to make it easier to have your gender entry and first name changed at the registry office. It stipulates that from November 1 of this year, people will be able to make the corresponding change by submitting a declaration to the registry office. The previous obligation to submit a medical certificate and several expert opinions is to be abolished.
The simplifications primarily affect transgender, intersex and non-binary people, who previously had to overcome major hurdles to have their gender entry and first name changed at the authorities. They still have to go through a lengthy and costly procedure with expert opinions.
The new Self-Determination Act replaces the Transsexuals Act, which has been in force for 40 years. The Federal Constitutional Court had repeatedly declared parts of the law to be unconstitutional and pointed out the humiliating procedures for those affected.
The humiliation is now over, explained the Federal Government's Queer Commissioner, Sven Lehmann, in the Bundestag on Friday. The Transsexuals Act had caused enough suffering. Green MP Nyke Slawik, who herself belongs to the group of trans people and had her gender entry changed on the basis of the previous rules, thanked everyone who had made the new law possible. "As trans people, we experience time and again that our dignity is made a matter of negotiation," she explained. This is now a thing of the past. Sharp criticism came from the opposition.
CDU member of parliament Mareike Wulf (CDU) accused the governing coalition of allowing any citizen to have their gender entry changed at the office in future without giving any further justification. The AfD found some drastic words. "Everyone should suddenly be able to be anything," cried MP Martin Reichardt. He spoke of "ideological nonsense" and "trans extremists". It was a "ludicrous law" that his parliamentary group rejected in its entirety.
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic