Legal aspects of transgenderism

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A person may be considered to be a transgender person if their gender identity is inconsistent or not culturally associated with the sex they were assigned at birth, and consequently also with the gender role and social status that is typically associated with that sex. They may have, or may intend to establish, a new gender status that accords with their gender identity. Transsexual is generally considered a subset of transgender,[1][2][3] but some transsexual people reject being labelled transgender.[4][5][6][7]

Globally, most legal jurisdictions recognise the two traditional gender identities and social roles, man and woman, but tend to exclude any other gender identities, and expressions. However, there are some countries which recognize, by law, a third gender. There is now a greater understanding of the breadth of variation outside the typical categories of "man" and "woman", and many self-descriptions are now entering the literature, including pangender, polygender, genderqueer and agender. Medically and socially, the term "transsexualism" is being replaced with gender identity or gender dysphoria, and terms such as transgender people, trans men and trans women are replacing the category of transsexual people.

This raises many legal issues and aspects of transgenderism. Most of these issues are generally considered a part of family law, especially the issues of marriage and the question of a transsexual person benefiting from a partner's insurance or social security.

The degree of legal recognition provided to transgenderism varies widely throughout the world. Many countries now legally recognise sex reassignments by permitting a change of legal gender on an individual's birth certificate. Many transsexual people have permanent surgery to change their body, Sexual Reassignment Sugery (SRS) or semi-permanently change their body by hormonal means, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). In many countries, some of these modifications are required for legal recognition. In a few, the legal aspects are directly tied to health care; i.e. the same bodies or doctors decide whether a person can move forward in their treatment, and the subsequent processes automatically incorporate both matters.

In some jurisdictions, transgender people (who are considered non-transsexual) can benefit from the legal recognition given to transsexual people. In some countries, an explicit medical diagnosis of "transsexualism" is (at least formally) necessary. In others, a diagnosis of "gender dysphoria," or simply the fact that one has established a non-conforming gender role, can be sufficient for some or all of the legal recognition available. The DSM-V recognizes Gender Dysphoria as the official diagnoses.

National level

Country Date Gender identity/expression legislation Upper house Lower house Head of state Final
outcome
Yes No Yes No
United Kingdom United Kingdom July 2004 Gender Recognition Act[8] Passed Passed Signed Yes Yes
Spain Spain March 2007 Gender identity law[9] Passed Passed Signed Yes Yes
Uruguay Uruguay November 2009 Gender identity law[10] 20 0 51 2 Signed Yes Yes
Argentina Argentina May 2012 Gender identity law[11] 55 0 167 17 Signed Yes Yes
Denmark Denmark September 2014 Gender Recognition law[12] Passed Passed Signed Yes Yes
Malta Malta April 2015 Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act[13] Passed Passed Signed Yes Yes
Republic of Ireland Ireland July 2015 Gender Recognition Act[14] Passed Passed Signed Yes Yes
Vietnam Vietnam November 2015 Transgender Rights Law[15][16] Passed Passed Signed1 Yes Yes
Bolivia Bolivia 2016 Gender identity law[17][18][19] Pending
Chile Chile 2016 Gender identity law[20] Pending
Ecuador Ecuador 2016 Gender identity law[21][22] N/A 77 2 Pending

Notes:
1The law is expected to come into effect on January 1, 2017.

Europe

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Laws concerning gender identity-expression by country or territory
  Legal identity change
  No legal identity change
  Unknown/Ambiguous

A majority of countries in Europe give transgender people the right to at least change their first name, most of which also provide a way of changing birth certificates. Several European countries recognize the right of transsexuals to marry in accordance with their post-operative sex. Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom all recognize this right. The Convention on the recognition of decisions regarding a sex change provides regulations for mutual recognition of sex change decisions and has been signed by five European countries and ratified by Spain and the Netherlands.

France

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. In France, there is currently no law that defines sex-change procedures. However, it is possible to ask for a sex- or a name change before the Court. The judge decides to grant or refuse the change.

Germany

The Transsexuellengesetz

Since 1980, Germany has a law that regulates the change of first names and legal gender. It is called "Gesetz über die Änderung der Vornamen und die Feststellung der Geschlechtszugehörigkeit in besonderen Fällen (de:Transsexuellengesetz – TSG)" (Law about the change of first name and determination of gender identity in special cases (Transsexual law – TSG)). However, the name change becomes legally void if a child of the person's descent[clarify] is born more than 300 days after the name change.[23]

In the past, German law required parents to give their child a gender-specific name.[24][25] This is no longer true, since the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany held in 2008 that there is no obligation that a name has to be sex-specific, even if it is the only one.[26] One can either obtain a change of name alone, and proceed later with a change of legal gender, if possible or desired, or obtain both in a single legal procedure.[citation needed]

For both, two independent medical court experts have to be commissioned by the judge. They are asked to evaluate, whether

  • the person "does not identify with the birth-assigned sex/gender,[27] but with the other one",[citation needed] and
  • "feels a compulsion to live according to his/her ideas for at least three years",[citation needed] and
  • it is to be assumed with high probability, that the feeling of belonging to the other sex/gender[27] is not going to change".[citation needed]

For the change of legal gender, it was also once required that the person

  • is permanently infertile,[citation needed] and
  • has had surgery through which their outer sexual characteristics are changed to a "significant approximation" to the appearance of their preferred biological sex.[citation needed]

These requirements were declared unconstitutional by supreme court ruling in a 2011.[citation needed]

Originally, the law stated that neither change of name nor legal gender were available for people under 25 years of age. This condition has been declared void by the courts, and today there is no minimum age. Until 2008, the person had to be unmarried.[citation needed]

The TSG applies only to German citizens; there are exceptions only for non-German citizens with very specific legal status, such as stateless people living legally in Germany, or in case the foreign state has no equivalent law, which would be in accordance with German constitution.[citation needed]

Several court decisions have further specified several matters. For example, a person with only a name change has the right to be called "Herr" or "Frau" (Mr. or Mrs.) according to their first name, not their legal gender; similarly, documents have to be issued reflecting their actual gender identity, not legal gender. Job references, certifications and similar from the time before the change of name may be reissued with the new name, so effectively there is no way for a new employer to learn about the change of name and/or legal gender. Also, people with only a name change do not have to divulge their legal gender to employers.[citation needed]

Republic of Ireland

In the Republic of Ireland, it was not possible for a transsexual person to alter their birth certificate until 2015. A case was taken in the High Court by Lydia Foy in 2002, which saw her case being turned down as a birth certificate was deemed to be a historical document.[28]

Foy had taken new proceedings to the High Court relying on the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in the Goodwin and 'I' cases. Her application was heard between 17 and 26 April 2007, and judgment was reserved. Judgment was given in the High Court on 19 October 2007. The Judge held that the Irish State had failed to respect Foy's rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights by not providing any mechanism for her to obtain a new birth certificate in her female gender. He indicated that he would grant a declaration that Irish law in this area was incompatible with the Convention. He also said he would have found that her right to marry under Article 12 of the Convention had been infringed as well if that had been relevant. On 14 February 2008. the Judge granted a declaration that sections of the Civil Registration Act 2004 were incompatible with Article 8 of the Convention. This was the first declaration of incompatibility made under the European Convention of Human Rights Act passed in 2003.[29]

The Government appealed this decision but dropped its appeal in June 2010 and set up an advisory group of civil servants to make recommendations for new legislation. The advisory group's report was published in July 2011 [30] but there was controversy over some of its recommendations, notably that married transgender persons would have to divorce before they could be recognised in their acquired gender. At the launch of the report the Minister responsible stated that the Government would introduce gender recognition legislation as soon as possible.[31] No legislation had been introduced by February 2013 and Foy issued new proceedings in the High Court, seeking a declaration that the State was obliged to issue her with a new birth certificate in her female gender, or, alternatively, that the State was in breach of the Irish Constitution or the European Convention on Human Rights because it had failed to provide her with an effective remedy for the violation of her rights [32]

On July 15, 2015, Ireland passed a bill that allows legal gender changes, without even the requirement of medical intervention.[33]

It has been possible since the enactment of the Gender Recognition Act 2015 to request a Certificate of Gender Recognition through self-determination for any person aged 18 or over resident in Ireland and registered on Irish registers of birth or adoption. Persons aged 16 to 18 years of age must secure a court order to exempt them from the normal requirement to be at least 18 years of age when making the declaration set out in the Gender Recognition Certificate application form.[34]

A Certificate of Gender Recognition permits a person to change their legal gender from male to female or female to male by self-determination without any requirement to have gender reassignment treatment or without any assessment by or on behalf of the state.

According to The Guardian newspaper, this makes Ireland only one of four legal jurisdictions in the world where people may legally change gender through self-determination.[35]

Poland

Anna Grodzka, the first transsexual MP in Europe[36]

The first milestone sentence in the case of gender shifting was given by Warsaw's Voivode Court in 1964. The court reasoned that it be possible, in face of civil procedure and acting on civil registry records, to change one's legal gender after their genital reassignment surgery had been conducted. In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that in some cases, when the attributes of the individual's preferred gender were predominant, it is possible to change one's legal gender even before genital reassignment surgery.[37]

In 2011, Anna Grodzka, the first transsexual MP in the history of Europe who underwent a sex-change operation was appointed. In the Polish Parliamentary Election 2011 she gained 19 337 votes (45 079 voted for her party in the constituency) in the City of Cracow and came sixth in her electoral district (928 914 people, voter turnout 55,75%).[38] Grodzka is reportedly the only transsexual person with ministerial responsibilities in the world since 10 November 2011.[citation needed]

Romania

In Romania, it is legal for transgender people to change their first name to reflect their gender identity, based on personal choice. Since 1996, it is also possible for someone who has gone through genital reassignment surgery to change their legal gender in order to reflect their post-operative sex. Transsexuals then have the right to marry in accordance with their post-operative sex.[39]

United Kingdom

Historically in the United Kingdom, transsexual people have succeeded in having their birth certificates changed and marriages conducted. This was first legally challenged in the 1960s, in the case of Ross Alexander, where the Court of Session ruled that the certificate change was legitimate for the purposes of inheriting a title, a decision later upheld by the Home Secretary. However, the case was held secretly and in a Scottish court, and there was not a publicly reported case in an English court until 1970.[40] That year, in the case of Corbett v Corbett, Arthur Corbett attempted to annul his marriage to April Ashley on the grounds that transsexuals were not recognised by English law. It was decided that, for the purposes of marriage, a post-operative transsexual was considered to be of the sex they were assigned at birth.[41]

This set the precedent for the coming decades. People who thought that they had existing valid marriages, turned out not to, and the previous unofficial changing of birth certificates was stopped.[citation needed] Even so, transsexual people were able to change their names freely, to have their passports and driving licences altered, to have their National Insurance details changed, and so forth,[citation needed] and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 made it illegal to discriminate on the ground of anatomical sex in employment, education and the provision of housing, goods, facilities and services.[42]

In the 1980s and 1990s the pressure group, Press for Change, campaigned in support for transgender and transsexual people to be allowed to marry,[43] and helped people take several cases to the European Court of Human Rights.[44] In Rees v. United Kingdom (1986), it was decided that the UK was not violating any human rights,[45] but that they should keep the situation under review.[citation needed] The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999 extended the existing Sex Discrimination Act, and made it illegal to discriminate against any person on the grounds of gender reassignment, but only in the areas of employment and vocational training.[42]

In the 2002 case Goodwin v. United Kingdom, it was decided that the rights to privacy and family life were being infringed. In response to its obligation, the UK Parliament passed the Gender Recognition Act 2004, which effectively granted full legal recognition for transgender people.[42]

The Equality Act 2006 also introduced the Gender Equality Duty in Scotland, which made public bodies obliged to take seriously the threat of harassment or discrimination of transsexual individuals in various situations. In 2008, the Sex Discrimination (Amendment of Legislation) Regulations 2008 extended existing regulation to make it illegal to discriminate when providing goods or services to transsexual individuals. The definition of "transsexual" used in the Gender Equality Duty is still technically the same as that in the Sexual Discrimination Act, but this legislation was also taken to mean to prevent discrimination against all transgender individuals.[42]

The Equality Act 2010 officially adds "gender reassignment" as a "protected characteristic," stating that:

A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person's sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.[46]

Some trans rights activists, such as Transgender Equality & Rights in Scotland, advocate adding the category of "gender identity" "in order to be more clearly inclusive of those transgender people who do not identify as transsexual and do not intend to change the gender in which they live". They also want to introduce measures that would more explicitly include intersex people and clarify protections from discrimination in education, certain kinds of employment, and medical insurance.[47]

As of 2010, the Green Party supports a reform of the UK's Mental Health Act in order to remove transgender people from the Psychiatric Disorder Register, which they view as discriminatory.[48] They also oppose the "spousal veto",[49] a piece of legislation described by Pink News as "a stipulation in the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act that married transgender people can only be legally recognised as their correct gender if their spouse gives permission".[50]

In contrast to some systems elsewhere in the world, the Gender Recognition process does not require applicants to be post-operative. They need only demonstrate that they have suffered gender dysphoria, and have lived as "your new gender" for two years, and intend to continue doing so until death.[51]

Africa

South Africa

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The Constitution of South Africa forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, gender and sexual orientation (amongst other grounds). The Constitutional Court has indicated that "sexual orientation" includes transsexuality.[52]

In 2003 Parliament enacted the Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act, which allows a transgender person who has undergone medical or surgical gender reassignment to apply to the Department of Home Affairs to have the sex description altered on their birth record. Once the birth record is altered they can be issued with a new birth certificate and identity document, and are considered "for all purposes" to be of the new sex.[53]

Americas

Canada

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Jurisdiction over legal classification of characteristic sex in Canada is assigned to the provinces and territories. This includes legal change of gender classification, for which the requirements vary from one sub-federal jurisdiction to another.[citation needed]

Canada's Parliament is considering Bill C-279, which would amend both the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code to include protection of gender identity.[54]

In the Bill gender identity means an individual's deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex that the individual was assigned at birth.[citation needed]

The Bill passed the House of Commons, and is before the Canadian Senate as of June 17, 2013.[55]

Colombia

A Colombian person may change their legal gender and name manifesting their solemn will before a notar, no surgeries or judicial order required.[56]

United States

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Pursuant to the U.S. Const., Amend. 10, which reserves to the states (or to the people) all powers not assigned to the federal government, the legal classification of characteristic sex is state jurisdiction in the United States. The principle is generally extended to the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, though the federal government has power to overrule any decision those non-state entities might make. Thus, the legal gender of a transsexual (as well as a transsex or intersex) individual in the United States does not have one answer but 56 answers – one for each state, the District of Columbia, and the five inhabited territories (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands).[citation needed]

Argentina

In 2012 the Argentine Congress passed the Ley de Género (Gender Law),[57] which allows individuals over 18 to change the gender marker in their DNI (national ID) on the basis of a written declaration only. Argentina thus became the first country to adopt a gender recognition policy based entirely on individual autonomy, without any requirement for third party diagnosis, surgeries or obstacles of any type.

Asia

Hong Kong

The Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong ruled that a transsexual woman has the right to marry her boyfriend. The ruling was made on the 13th of May, 2013.[58][59]

On 16 September 2013, a Colombian transgender woman coming from Taiwan claimed that she was discriminated and sexually abused by the customs officers, including being subjected to invasive body searches and denied usage of a female toilet, although Hong Kong officers denied the allegations.[60][61] After being released, she applied for and was granted refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), rendering her effectively stateless awaiting acceptance to a third country.[62][63]

Japan

On 10 July 2003, the National Diet of Japan unanimously approved a new law that enables transsexual people to amend their legal sex. It is called 性同一性障害者の性別の取扱いの特例に関する法律 (Act on Special Cases in Handling Gender for People with Gender Identity Disorder)[64][65][66] The law, effective on 16 July 2004, however, has controversial conditions which demand the applicants be both unmarried and childless. On 28 July 2004, Naha Family Court in Okinawa Prefecture returned a verdict to a transsexual woman in her 20s, allowing her family registry record or koseki to be amended as she was born a female. It is generally believed to be the first court approval under the new law.[67] Despite the fact that sex reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy are mandatory for a legal sex change, it is not paid for by national health insurance.[citation needed]

Malaysia

There is no legislation expressly allowing transsexuals to legally change their gender in Malaysia. The relevant legislations are the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1957 and National Registration Act 1959. Therefore, judges currently exercise their discretion in interpreting the law and defining the gender. There are conflicting decisions on this matter. There is a case in 2003 where the court allowed a transsexual to change her gender indicated in the identity card, and granted a declaration that she is a female.[68][69] However, in 2005, in another case, the court refused to amend the gender of a transsexual in the identity card and birth certificate.[68] Both cases applied the United Kingdom case of Corbett v Corbett in defining legal gender.

Philippines

The Supreme Court of the Philippines Justice Leonardo Quisumbing on 12 September 2008, allowed Jennifer Cagandahan, 27, to change both his birth certificate, gender and name from Jennifer to Jeff, to male: "We respect respondent’s congenital condition and his mature decision to be a male. Life is already difficult for the ordinary person. We cannot but respect how respondent deals with his unordinary state and thus help make his life easier, considering the unique circumstances in this case. In the absence of a law on the matter, the court will not dictate on respondent concerning a matter so innately private as one's sexuality and lifestyle preferences, much less on whether or not to undergo medical treatment to reverse the male tendency due to rare medical condition, congenital adrenal hyperplasia. In the absence of evidence that respondent is an 'incompetent,' and in the absence of evidence to show that classifying respondent as a male will harm other members of society [...] the court affirms as valid and justified the respondent's position and his personal judgment of being a male." Court records showed that – at 6, he had small ovaries; at 13, his ovarian structure was minimized and he had no breasts and did not menstruate. The psychiatrist testified that "he has both male and female sex organs, but was genetically female, and that since his body secreted male hormones, his female organs did not develop normally." The Philippines National Institutes of Health said "people with congenital adrenal hyperplasia lack an enzyme needed by the adrenal gland to make the hormones cortisol and aldosterone.[70][71]

This, however, only applies to cases involving congenital adrenal hyperplasia and other intersex situations.[citation needed] The Philippine Supreme Court has also ruled that Filipino citizens do not have the right to legally change their sex on official documents (driver's license, passport, birth certificate, Social Security records, etc.) if they are transsexual and have undergone sexual reassignment surgery. The Court said that if the man, now anatomically a female, were to be allowed to legally change his sex it would have "serious and wide-ranging legal and public policy consequences," citing the institution of marriage in particular.[72]

South Korea

In South Korea, it is possible for transgender individuals to change their legal gender, although it depends on the decision of the judge for each case. Since the 1990s, however, it has been approved in most of the cases. The legal system in Korea does not prevent marriage once a person has changed their legal gender.[citation needed]

In 2006, the Supreme Court of Korea ruled that transsexuals have the right to alter their legal papers to reflect their reassigned sex. A trans woman can be registered, not only as female, but also as being "born as a woman."[citation needed]

While same-sex marriage is not approved by South Korean law, a transsexual woman obtains the marital status of 'female' automatically when she marries to a man, even if she has previously been designated as "male."[citation needed]

In 2013 a court ruled that transsexuals can change their legal sex without undergoing genital surgery.[73]

Australia

Birth Certificates

Estelle Asmodelle was Australia's first legal transsexual with the Births, Deaths and Marriages Dept. (NSW Government). As cited by (18 June 1987 – Australian Telegraph Newspaper.) This was the first time in Australian law history that an adult transsexual was permitted to change their birth certificate to a different sex and soon afterwards the passport law also changed allowing transsexuals to be issued passports with the new sex depicted.

Australia is now one of only a few countries where legal status of the new sex following sex affirmation surgery is granted via a new full birth certificate. Birth certificates are within the jurisdiction of the states, whereas marriage and passports are matters for the Commonwealth. All Australian jurisdictions now recognise the affirmed sex of an individual after surgery unless the person is married.[74]

In the landmark case New South Wales Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages v Norrie [2014] the High Court of Australia held that the Births Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995 (NSW) did not require that a person who, having undergone a sex affirmation procedure, must identify as either a man or a woman. Rather, the Court refuted the binary notion of sex, and the held that the Act itself recognises that a person may be other than male or female and therefore permits the registration of "non-specific".[75]

Marriage

Passports

Passports are issued in the preferred gender, without requiring a change to birth certificates or citizenship certificates. A letter is needed from a medical practitioner which certifies that the person has had or is receiving appropriate treatment for transition.[76]

See also

References

  • Chow, Melinda. (2005). "Smith v. City of Salem: Transgendered Jurisprudence and an Expanding Meaning of Sex Discrimination under Title VII". Harvard Journal of Law & Gender. Vol. 28. Winter. 207.
  • Transgender Rights. (2006). Edited by Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang and Shannon Price Minter. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.[77]
  • Sellers, Mitchell D. 2011. "Discrimination and the Transgender Population: A Description of Local Government Policies that Protect Gender Identity or Expression". Applied Research Projects, Texas State University-San Marcos. Paper 360. [3]

Notes

  1. Transgender Rights (2006, ISBN 0816643121), edited by Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, Shannon Minter
  2. Thomas E. Bevan, The Psychobiology of Transsexualism and Transgenderism (2014, ISBN 1440831270), page 42: "The term transsexual was introduced by Cauldwell (1949) and popularized by Harry Benjamin (1966) [...]. The term transgender was coined by John Oliven (1965) and popularized by various transgender people who pioneered the concept and practice of transgenderism. It is sometimes said that Virginia Prince (1976) popularized the term, but history shows that many transgender people adovcated the use of this term much more than Prince. The adjective transgendered should not be used [...]. Transsexuals constitute a subset of transgender people."
  3. A. C. Alegria, Transgender identity and health care: Implications for psychosocial and physical evaluation, in the Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, volume 23, issue 4 (2011), pages 175–182: "Transgender, Umbrella term for persons who do not conform to gender norms in their identity and/or behavior (Meyerowitz, 2002). Transsexual, Subset of transgenderism; persons who feel discordance between natal sex and identity (Meyerowitz, 2002)."
  4. Valentine, David. Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category, Duke University, 2007
  5. Stryker, Susan. Introduction. In Stryker and S. Whittle (Eds.), The Transgender Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, 2006. 1–17
  6. Kelley Winters, "Gender Madness in American Psychiatry, essays from the struggle for dignity, 2008, p. 198. "Some Transsexual individuals also identify with the broader transgender community; others do not."
  7. retrieved 20 August 2015: " Transsexualism is often included within the broader term 'transgender', which is generally considered an umbrella term for people who do not conform to typically accepted gender roles for the sex they were assigned at birth. The term 'transgender' is a word employed by activists to encompass as many groups of gender diverse people as possible. However, many of these groups individually don't identify with the term. Many health clinics and services set up to serve gender variant communities employ the term, however most of the people using these services again don't identify with this term. The rejection of this political category by those that it is designed to cover clearly illustrates the difference between self-identification and categories that are imposed by observers to understand other people."
  8. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/7/enacted
  9. http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2007/03/17/actualidad/1174086001_850215.html
  10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8304123.stm
  11. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/05/10/argentina-approves-gender-identity-law/
  12. http://www.lgbt-ep.eu/press-releases/denmark-becomes-europes-leading-country-on-legal-gender-recognition/
  13. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20150413/letters/the-gender-identity-act.563735
  14. http://www.teni.ie/page.aspx?contentid=586
  15. https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/11/30/vietnam-positive-step-transgender-rights
  16. http://www.care2.com/causes/vietnam-passes-transgender-rights-law-but-is-it-good-enough.html
  17. http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=310369
  18. http://www.justicia.gob.bo/index.php/noticias/notas-de-prensa/1897-presentan-anteproyecto-de-ley-para-cambiar-datos-de-identidad-de-las-personas-transexuales-y-transgenero-
  19. http://www.nodal.am/2015/12/bolivia-comunidad-lgtb-presiona-a-la-asamblea-para-que-trate-ley-de-identidad-de-genero/
  20. http://www.movilh.cl/despachan-ley-de-identidad-de-genero-y-gobierno-anuncua-proyecto-de-ley-de-matrimonio-igualitario/
  21. http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuadorean-Lawmakers-Approve-New-Gender-Identity-Law-20151211-0001.html
  22. http://www.mirada-h.com/en/ecuador-aprueba-ley-que-garantiza-id-de-genero/
  23. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  25. Flippo, Hyde "The Germany Way" Published by McGraw-Hill (1996), Pages 96-97
  26. BVerfG, 1 BvR 576/07 vom 5.12.2008, paragraph 16
  27. 27.0 27.1 The German word Geschlecht (the teminology used in the law) can be translated as either "sex" or "gender".
  28. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. "Foy v. An t-Ard Chlaraitheoir & Others 2007 IEHC 470" (http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2007/H470.html. 19 October 2007. http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2007/H470.html.
  30. "Report of the Gender Recognition Advisory Group" <http://www.welfare.ie/en/pages/Report-of-the-Gender-Recognition-Advisory-Group.aspx>. Department of Social Protection. 15 June 2011. http://www.welfare.ie/en/pages/Report-of-the-Gender-Recognition-Advisory-Group.aspx. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  31. "Gender recognition legislation move 'a step along the way'" <http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/gender-recognition-legislation-move-a-step-along-the-way-161110.html>. Irish Examiner. 15 July 2011. http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/gender-recognition-move-a-step-alomg-the-way-161110.html. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  32. "Transgender woman to sue over birth certificate delay" <http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0227/1224330566731.html>. The Irish Times. 27 February 2013. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0224/1224530566721.html. Retrieved 4 March 2013. "Dentist in new gender legal bid" (http:/www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/dentist-in-new-gender-legal-bid-223996.html). Irish Examiner. 28 February 2013. http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/dentist-in-new-gender-legal-bid/-223996.html. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
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  37. see for example: T. Smyczynski, Prawo rodzinne i opiekuńcze, C.H. Beck 2005
  38. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  44. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  60. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  63. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  74. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  75. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  76. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  77. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

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