German children aged 14 can ‘self-identify’ gender

GERMAN children aged 14 and over will be allowed to change their name and gender without parental consent or expert approval, under new government plans that seek to help transgender people.

The proposal is part of wider gender reforms unveiled yesterday, which Germany hopes will make it easier for transgender people to legally change their name and gender, ending decadesold rules that require them to get expert assessments and a court’s authorisation.

It would also allow children aged under 14 to change their gender if parents or guardians make applications on their behalf.

The existing “transsexual law”, which took effect in 1981, requires individuals to obtain assessments from two experts whose training and experience makes them “sufficiently familiar with the particular problems of transsexualism”. A court decision to change the gender on official documents is then needed.

Britain had tried a similar reform in 2017 under Theresa May, only to abandon it in 2020, under Boris Johnson’s Government, which decided that “proper checks and balances” in the system should be maintained.

In France, citizens can already change their gender without an expert’s opinion as evidence. Instead, they must provide “family testimonies, photographs and documents”, which show they are living under a different gender to the one assigned at birth.

Lisa Paus, Germany’s minister for families, said: “The current requirements are not just lengthy and expensive; they are also deeply humiliating, but above all they are completely superfluous.”