24.07.2024
The Self-Determination Act (Gesetz über die Selbstbestimmung in Bezug auf den Geschlechtseintrag, or SBGG for short) regulates changes to gender entries and first names under civil status law. It was passed by the Bundestag on 19 June 2024 and comes into force on 1 November 2024. According to the new legal regulation, the person’s self-disclosure to the registry office is sufficient to change the information. From 1 August, it will be possible to register changes to the gender entry. The Berlin registry offices have already provided information on the procedure and rules at an early stage. However, their interpretation of the naming rules, which has little to do with self-determination and much to do with state authority, has caused astonishment and attracted criticism. After all, only the person themselves can decide how many and which first names ‘correspond’ to the chosen gender entry, and whether this may not necessarily be a ‘new’ first name. We oppose the idea that registrars should consult name lists and search the internet in order to give or withhold their consent. This has already been partially addressed by Antkek Engel filing a complaint with the district mayor of Neukölln, Martin Hikel, the supervisory authority for Berlin’s registry offices and the anti-discrimination office of the state of Berlin against the discriminatory interpretation of the SBGG by the Neukölln registry office.
Specifically, the Berlin Neukölln registry office has those authorised to register for a change of gender entry sign a specially created form stating that they are aware that the number of first names cannot be changed. In doing so, they also fail to mention that the gender entry to which the change is to be made does not have to be specified when registering – this is only necessary when making the declaration. They also fail to mention that the registration can also be made verbally.
We object to the fact that the Neukölln registry office interprets the SBGG more rigidly than is provided for in the legal text. No external authority can decide whether first names correspond to one’s own gender identity! Accordingly, no one should be forced to give up their existing first name(s) or be restricted in their choice of first names, their combination or number!
We rely on civil registrars to respect the fact that only the person themselves can decide what it means for them that their gender entry and first name(s) ‘correspond’.
But even then, the problem remains that – already according to the law, not only through registry office practice – the retention of existing names is made more difficult and the name cannot be changed independently of the gender entry. On the latter point, the SBGG falls behind the so-called ‘small solution’ of the former TSG (‘Transsexuals Act’), which allowed people to change their first name alone in order to adapt it to their own gender identity.
The SBGG, as welcome as its introduction is, does not do justice to the diversity of gender self-perceptions and queer realities. The narrow interpretation also fails to recognise that this law is not only open to trans*, inter* and non-binary people, but to all people. For example, cisgender people may also have an interest in deleting their gender entry. But why should this go hand in hand with a change of name? And what would it mean to say that deleting the gender entry corresponds to gender identity? Perhaps a person who has their gender entry removed does not feel any gender identity at all. This puts the option raised by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2017 back on the agenda for the next step in the reform of civil status law: The recording of gender as an organising characteristic under civil status law should be abolished!
The genders to those who live in them!
Antkek Engel, Finn Scholle