Lithuanian court to review marriage rule for legal gender changes

Lithuania’s Constitutional Court will examine whether transgender people must end an existing marriage to change the gender marker in their personal identification code, LRT reported on Wednesday.

The court accepted an individual complaint challenging the relevant Civil Code provision. The applicant asks the court to assess whether it conflicts with constitutional protections for human dignity, private life, equality and the family, as well as the principle of the rule of law.

The applicant turned to the court after authorities rejected her request to correct the gender entry on her birth record to reflect her female gender. She says the state has partly recognised her identity by changing her first name, surname and some civil-status records, but that changing the gender marker in her personal identification code would require her to end her marriage.

According to the applicant, the rule undermines her dignity and privacy because the male gender entry in her documents can reveal that she is transgender to other people and institutions. She also says married people seeking legal recognition of their gender identity are treated less favourably than unmarried people. Neither she nor her wife wants to end their marriage, and they have minor children, she says, meaning the rule affects the whole family.

The Civil Code provides that an unmarried adult may medically change their sex if it is medically possible, and that the request must be made in writing. In Lithuania, transgender people can change their first and last names through an administrative procedure, but changing the gender marker and personal identification code in official documents requires a court decision. Legal recognition of a person’s gender identity can be granted by a court if a psychiatric diagnosis is provided.

Lithuania lost a case at the European Court of Human Rights in 2007 over the absence of legislation regulating the procedure for changing sex. The Civil Code states that the conditions and procedure must be set by law.