The Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday ruled that transgender men can change their legal gender without undergoing gender-affirming surgery.
This decision can be appealed.
The court handed down a ruling in favor of transgender man Nemo (尼莫), who in 2022 unsuccessfully petitioned for a gender change on his national ID card at the Household Registration Office in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義).
Photo: AP
Together with the legal team of the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, he filed an administrative appeal against the office’s decision the same year.
Hailing the ruling as a victory for transgender rights, the alliance in a news release said the case sets a legal precedent for those who identify as men to change their legal gender without undergoing any medical gender-affirming surgery.
In 2021, the alliance successfully challenged the Household Registration Office in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪) to enable a trans woman identified by the pseudonym “Little E” (小E) to change her registered gender to female.
Nemo has been taking male hormones for many years, but was barred from gender-affirming surgery due to a previous medical procedure, it said.
Gender-affirming operation might pose life-threatening risks to Nemo, the alliance said.
The court should be applauded for acknowledging the unique challenges of each transgender person face and not forcing Nemo to undergo a medical procedure before amending his legal gender, alliance lawyer Hsieh Meng-chao (謝孟釗) said.
The alliance urges the Household Registration Office in Xinyi to stop fighting the court’s judgement and avoid causing unnecessary delay in issuing a new ID for Nemo, she said.
The government should not deny Nemo his gender identity just because he was unable to undergo a gender-affirming surgery, alliance lawyer Neil Pan (潘天慶) said.
Hostility and prejudice against transgender people continue to permeate Taiwanese society, he said, adding that misgendering and other insults are deeply hurtful to people subjected to them.
The court’s decision affirms the principle of human dignity lying at the heart of human rights, which are constitutional rights for all Taiwanese, Pan said.
About 50 nations and territories in the world allow a person to change their legal gender without requiring proof of surgical gender transition and 22 do not require any medical certificates, alliance lawyer Victoria Hsu (許秀雯) said.
An estimated 90 percent of transgender Taiwanese are unable to have IDs matching their gender identity, she said.
These people face insults and discrimination on a daily basis, she added.
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