EU States Must Recognise Gender “Changes” Granted Anywhere in the Union, Top Court Rules

Source: The Telegraph

European Union countries must recognise gender and name changes made in other member states, the bloc’s top court has ruled.

In what was hailed as a “monumental victory” for transgender people, judges in Luxembourg said that Romania had broken EU law by refusing to accept a British-Romanian transgender man’s change of sex and name from female to male, which he was granted in the UK before the Brexit transition period ended.

In a ruling that sets a precedent across the bloc, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that lawful name and gender changes made in other EU states had to be automatically accepted to protect EU rights to free movement and residence.

It said that Brexit was not relevant because Britain was still a member state during the transition period, when Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi was granted a gender recognition certificate in 2020, after moving to the UK in 2008 and gaining British citizenship.

Mr Mirzarafie-Ahi had applied for a new birth certificate from the Romanian authorities, who ordered him to restart a lengthy gender-recognition procedure in Romania rather than accepting the UK documents.

“Today’s verdict has shown us that trans people are equal citizens of the European Union,” said Iustina Ionescu, Mr Mirzarafie-Ahi’s lawyer.

“When you have rebuilt a life in another part of the European Union because you are not welcome in your own country, it is normal to ask to be treated with dignity when interacting with the authorities in your home country.”

Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi acquired a gender change certificate from the UK in 2020, after moving there in 2008

A Bucharest court had asked the ECJ if the refusal to recognise the UK decision was within EU law and whether Brexit had any impact.

The refusal was illegal under European law, the ECJ said in a ruling on a point of law which is binding on Romanian and all national courts in the EU. The case will return to the Romanian courts, which must take the Luxembourg ruling into account in their final decision.

“Legislation of a Member State that refuses to recognise and enter in the birth certificate of a national a change of first name and identity lawfully acquired in another Member State, in this case the United Kingdom, is contrary to EU law,” the ECJ said.

“This also applies where the request for recognition of that change was made after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.”

The Court added: “The refusal of a Member State to recognise a change of gender identity lawfully acquired in another Member State hinders the exercise of the right to free movement and residence.”

The ECJ said it was “not justified” to tell Mr Mirzarafie-Ahi to reapply in Romania because of the risk the application would be rejected.

The European Court of Human Rights, which is not an EU institution, has found that Romanian gender change procedures fell short of its standards.

In 2021, it found Romania breached the rights of two transgender people by not recognising their identity because they had not undergone gender-reassignment surgery.

Richard Köhler, of Transgender Europe, said that Friday’s verdict was “a monumental victory for trans people in Europe”.

“Arian was forced to navigate a legal nightmare, facing the prospect of conflicting passports and demands for sterilisation to match his legal gender on Romanian and UK documents,” he said.

“Member states must recognise each other’s decisions – this is about equality and dignity. Romania, it’s time to act: Arian deserves his passport now, and the country needs a legal framework for recognising foreign gender identities.”

“Today’s ruling confirms that without mutual recognition of legal gender recognition from one member state to another, the right to freedom of movement and residence is not guaranteed for trans people in the EU. It is a great victory,” said Marie-Hélène Ludwig of LGBTI rights campaigners ILGA Europe said.

‘It has become ideological crusading’

The decision will not be universally welcomed across Europe. EU members Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria have bans on or plan to ban people from legally changing their gender.

Rodrigo Ballester, the head of the centre for European studies at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium think tank in Budapest, which has links to the Hungarian government, said: “Utterly shocking and very banal at the same time. Once again, the European Court of Justice tramples over basic legal principles for ideological purposes and erodes member states’ competences through ludicrous reasonings.

“Its ultimate goal is not to enforce the law, but to force further integration. Not to mention that it ignores Brexit as if it had never happened. It is no longer judicial activism, it has become ideological crusading.”

“No individual, nor government, should be forced to affirm something that is untrue. Men cannot become women, and claiming this can have severe consequences in many areas of life,” said Lois McLatchie Miller, a spokesman for the Alliance Defending Freedom International campaign group. “Every government has a duty to protect the rights of their citizens – be it vulnerable women in crisis rape shelters, in prisons, or in changing rooms.

“Granting a biological male access to these spaces by recognising a “change in gender” puts women’s safety and wellbeing in jeopardy and often leads to censored and compelled speech.

“When biology is ignored, and words like “sex” lose their meaning, it is women and girls who bear the brunt of that mistake.”