Press Release

Green light for transgender law

People who want to change their gender and first name will soon be able to do so very easily.

From now on, a request to change gender or first name can be submitted to the registrar of births, marriages and deaths through a simplified procedure, without having to confirm the request twice and without a deadline for confirmation. It is possible to change gender and first name indefinitely. The additional procedure through the Family Court has also been abolished. The Justice Committee of the House of Representatives today gave the green light to the draft bill by Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne and Secretary of State for Gender Equality Marie-Colline Leroy, which makes changes to the 2017 transgender law.

The bill is a response to the Constitutional Court's comments, which annulled several parts of the previous law. The Court had ruled that the irrevocability of the principle of gender registration and first name change violated the principle of equality for transgender people. People who wanted to change their gender registration or first name a second time had to apply to the Family Court, which was a cumbersome procedure. In the ruling of 29 June 2019, the court also pointed out that there was no good reason to make the procedures more complicated or even inaccessible for transgender people.

The next phase of the reform will focus on the recognition of people with non-binary identities. The Constitutional Court stated that the lack of such recognition also violates the principle of equality for people who do not recognise themselves as 'male' or 'female'. Marie-Colline Leroy, Secretary of State for Gender Equality, welcomed this new step towards eliminating discrimination against transgender people, especially in the administrative sphere. “Work must now continue to ensure that all the Constitutional Court's observations are acted upon.”