The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a transgender woman in mandating that a household registration office in Taoyuan process her request to be registered as female.
The plaintiff, surnamed Chiang (江), filed with the Dasi Household Registration Office in October 2019 to change her registered gender from male to female, but the office denied the request.
It cited a Ministry of the Interior notice that said that Chiang failed to meet two prerequisites to change her gender: be diagnosed by two psychiatrists as identifying with the gender to which they wish to change and undergo surgery to remove genitalia of their birth gender.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Chiang had not undergone such surgery, the office said.
However, the court said that Chiang provided a diagnosis from two psychiatrists that she identified as female, which demonstrates that she is cognizant and understands her choice, adding that her decision should be upheld and protected by law.
The court ruling said that in accordance with previous Council of Grand Justices interpretations, the rights of personality, health, privacy and body are all protected by the Constitution.
Under the Constitution, the law must uphold the dignity of all people, and afford them the rights to determine their gender and the freedom to develop their character and personality, the court said.
The ministry’s notice contravened the Constitution, as a person’s gender should not be made immutable because of the genitalia they are born with, and they should be allowed to decide their gender, the court said.
Citing the death of Yeh Yung-chih (葉永鋕) as a precedent, the court said that the government should not stop at measures to direct social attention toward the issue or the establishment of gender equality legislation, but should instead offer constitutional protection of every person’s freedom to decide their gender.
Yeh, a high-school senior who had been bullied by classmates due to his perceived effeminate behavior, died on April 21, 2000. He was found lying in a pool of blood on the floor of a school bathroom.
Authorities at the time ruled out foul play. Although the cause of death had not been due to external injuries, Yeh’s death nonetheless prompted Taiwanese society to review gender equality regulations in schools.
The court recommended that the legislature pass new legislation to ensure that the right to gender identification is protected, as the ministry directive could be applied by other household registration offices when dealing with similar cases in the future.
The ruling can be appealed.
The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, a group that promotes gender equality, on Friday said that the ruling is unprecedented, and it urged the Taoyuan City Government not to file an appeal.
Additional reporting by CNA
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS