The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday sought a constitutional interpretation regarding a lawsuit filed by a transgender woman seeking to change the gender identification on her ID card.
The court halted the suit filed by Taipei resident Wu Yu-hsun (吳宇萱), who was seeking an administrative ruling on her application to alter the gender on her ID card after it was denied by a city household registration office in November last year.
The court sought an interpretation of the Constitution on the issue, saying that the provisions regarding gender determination under the Household Registration Act (戶籍法) are not applicable, which contradicts the Constitution.
On Nov. 20 last year, Wu applied to change the gender on her ID card from male to female at the Zhongzheng District (中正) Household Registration Office. The request was rejected because she failed to provide a medical certificate to show that she had undergone sex reassignment surgery.
Wu filed a suit with the administrative court, becoming the second person to seek such a change through litigation.
The first was a transgender woman who goes by the name “Siao E” (小E). She took her case to the Taipei High Administration Court after the Dasi District (大溪) Household Registration Office in Taoyuan denied her application in October 2019, saying she must provide proof of sex reassignment surgery.
On Sept. 23, the court ruled in her favor, ordering the office to change the gender on her ID card. Last month, the office decided not to appeal and changed her card.
On Thursday, the three members of the collegiate bench on Wu’s case — Hsiao Chung-jen (蕭忠仁), Lee Ming-yi (李明益) and Lo Yueh-chun (羅月君) — delivered their ruling after discussions and testimony from Wu that the laws regarding gender determination were inapplicable, which contradicted the Constitution.
The bench has the responsibility to ensure that the rights of people such as Wu, who require their gender to be redefined, would be protected by the Constitution, the ruling said.
It said that the Ministry of the Interior had commissioned a panel of experts and academics in September 2013 to research the gender registration system as it pertains to transgender people.
Despite the panel presenting a reform report two years later, the issue remains in the research phase at the Cabinet’s Gender Equality Committee, the ruling said.
As such, the fundamental rights of people to decide their gender have “not been protected by national laws,” it said.
Requiring that a person remove their sexual organs as the only way to alter the gender on their official documents shows a “lack of clear legal authorization,” and is an “inappropriate restriction” against the fundamental right of applicants unwilling to change their body by surgery, it said.
That violates the principles of legal reservation, proportion and equality, the ruling said, urging lawmakers to fix the long-term problem of legal inaction on people’s right to gender determination.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
RSS