EN
Revision of the Transsexuellengesetz, 2009
On April 08, 2009 the German Ministery of the Interior (BMI)
quite surprisingly published a draft of a new law to handle the
legal matters of transsexuality.:
http://www.main-ts.de/downloads/2009-04-07_TSRRG-E.latin1.html
The Ministery asked for ad hoc reports commenting the draft.
This happend upon urgent request by the LSVD, the German
organisation supporting LGBT matters. Various Groups from the LGB
and Trans community as well as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Sexualforschung (DGFS) who is maintaining the German SOCs for
medical treatment of transsexual people prepared comments on the
draft. These positions have not been considered. The draft has
been presented unmodified to the government and will be diskussed
in the Deutsche Bundestag on May 28, 2009.
In response, the group "Die Linken" in the Bundestag presented
a proposal to entirely drop the law and to integrate the matters
both of transsexual and intersexual people into the two existing
laws to regulate naming and legal state of all people.
In the forthcoming, both proposals will be summed up. A
documentation of the process in German as well as this English
summary is maintained on http://www.main-ts.de/?TS-POLITIK
April 2009, BMI
Summing up the most important Details, *name* changes shall be
based on only one "testimony" by a medical specialist instead of
the two expert opinion required at present. While the exact
nature of this testimony is unclear it is to be based on a long
term assessment of the transsexual person and it has to certify
the (absolute) irreversibility of the transsexual feelings of the
person. At present, a large probablility of the irreversibility
of the feelingss of the person is demanded. Despite of this, a
clause enabling a simple withdrawal of the name change by the
person in case of error or change of the feelings is still
included.
Partners shall be required to actively permit the change (and
thus block it, even if the marriage is in divorce, which may
require several years). Both partners shall be required to be
present in court.
At present, there is only an indirect representation of the
interests of partners by the so called representative of public
interest who in the 28 years of the present law never saw any
reason to act into the procedure.
Name changes of underaged transsexual persons shall require
the permission of another court specialized on issues of
underaged people.
The *change of the legal status* still requires infertility
and an also not precisely specified adoption of the appearance of
the other sex - except in cases where the medical treatment would
lead to mortal danger or severe impairment of health. These
preconditions shall be testified by an expert opinion. Partners
are required to explicitly permit and agree to the change. If the
name change has already been performed, the expert opinion
testifying the preconditions of the name change shall be not
necessary any more.
New are sections handling changing the paperworks. The
regulations to change older documents contain clauses
relativating them to "as far as possible" or "as far as the
contetns of the document are not changed". There are no clearly
specified rights, which is apparently a step behind the present
situation, which is based on case-law and gives institutions
arguments not to change documents.
In addition, a written confirmation attesting the application
shall be possible, which expires within 6 months ans then needs
renewal.
May 2009, Die Linken
It is demanded that there shall be an entitlement for name
changes of the opposite gender or mixed gender names upon simple
application at the civil registry offices.
Independent on surgical modifications of the body there shall
be an entitlement toward a change of the legal state of a person
after one year of living in the appropriate gender role. New
gender roles "transgender" and "intersexual" shall be
permissible. The officially registrated gender and the gender
notation in the passport may differ.
Marriages and civil unions shall be converted into each other
corresponding to the genders of the two partners.
The regulation shall be also applicable to all foreign people
with a resumably long term residence in Germany (three years for
asylum seeking persons).
Independent networks of counselers shall be promoted. Active
campaings against discrimination because of sexual or gender
identity by a governmental institution and the promotion of
non-medical research on transgenderism and transsexuality shall
be performed.
Medical insurances shall be required to cover the costs of
medical treatment (i.e. HRT, surgical treatment for gender
reassignment, counseling), especially including intersexual
people seeking gender reassignment as grown ups.
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