{"id":434800,"date":"2025-09-04T11:30:44","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/09\/04\/avvocato-generale-ue-stati-devono-rilasciare-documenti-di-identita-conformi-a-genere-vissuto\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T12:29:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T10:29:57","slug":"eu-advocate-general-states-must-issue-id-documents-consistent-with-the-persons-lived-gender-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/09\/04\/eu-advocate-general-states-must-issue-id-documents-consistent-with-the-persons-lived-gender-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Advocate General: States must issue ID documents ‘consistent with the person\u2019s lived gender identity’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – What one feels oneself to be is what one is. It is the view of the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union in his opinion on
\nan ongoing case<\/a> regarding the issuance by state authorities (in this case, Bulgarian) of an identity document that includes gender data. In essence, if at birth one is registered as male or female, and then the person concerned claims that he or she belongs to the other sex, this characteristic must be registered as such<\/strong>, regardless of surgical treatment. <\/p>\n

The matter came before the Court from the Bulgarian Supreme Court, brought by a person registered at birth as male and who now feels a female gender identity, which she wants recorded in her documents, particularly in the birth certificate. <\/p>\n

The Bulgarian legislation, as interpreted by the national courts, does not provide for the possibility of such a
\nchange of sex, name, and personal identification number in civil status records in
\nsuch a situation. <\/p>\n

In his Opinion, Advocate General Jean Richard de la Tour proposes that the Court declare that EU law
\nprecludes national legislation, such as that interpreted by the national courts, that does not allow the legal
\nrecognition of gender identity for its nationals,<\/strong> including in the absence of gender reassignment surgery, or
\npermit changes to their name or personal identification number to be legally recognised. “EU law also precludes
\nnational legislation that does not allow those changes to be entered in their birth certificate, since a change to the
\nstatements contained in their identity documents depends on such an entry,” the Court said in a statement. <\/p>\n

The Advocate General takes the view that, “the indication of the person\u2019s sex in the identity document based solely on
\nthe birth certificate established by the competent Member State gives rise, due to the purpose of that document, to
\nan obligation for that State to recognise the lived gender identity legally and to record it in that document.” <\/strong>The
\npurpose is to enable its holder to be identified, without giving rise to doubts about
\nthe authenticity of the documents presented or the veracity of the data contained therein.<\/p>\n

Therefore, national legislation, as interpreted by the national courts, which, by failing to recognise the gender
\nidentity of a transgender person, prevents that person from enjoying a right guaranteed by EU law, such as
\nobtaining an identity document enabling them to freely exercise their right to move and reside within the territory
\nof the Member States, constitutes a restriction on that right. “Such a restriction may only be justified by objective
\nconsiderations that are proportionate to a legitimate aim, which is not the case here,” the Advocate General said.<\/p>\n

The Advocate General proposes that the Court should rule that, in principle, it is incumbent on the referring court,
\nwithout waiting until the national legislation at issue is amended by legislation <\/strong>or other constitutional means, to
\ninterpret it in the light of EU law.<\/strong> That interpretation must, in particular, comply with the rules on freedom of
\nmovement and residence, respect for private life and the issue of identity documents or, if necessary, by disapplying
\nthat legislation. <\/p>\n

Finally, the Advocate General takes the view that the exercise, by a transgender person, of his or her right to
\nlegally register his or her transgender identity for the purpose of obtaining an identity card or passport
\ncorresponding to his or her gender identity cannot be subject to the production of evidence of gender
\nreassignment surgery<\/strong>. “Such a requirement would undermine, in particular, the right to respect for private life.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The change of civil status data must be carried out independently of any gender reassignment surgery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":439228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25713],"tags":[29250,32008],"class_list":["post-434800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-generate-and","tag-identita-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434801,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434800\/revisions\/434801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}