A transgender man, identified as Nemo (尼莫), changed the gender designation on his identification card in Taipei on Friday, becoming the first transgender man in the nation to do so without undergoing gender-affirming surgery.
“A new chapter of my life begins now,” Nemo said. “I really like how I look and who I am now.”
After receiving his new ID card, he said he no longer has to “feel embarrassed when people see my ID card.”
Photo: CNA
“Seeing this [updated gender marker on Nemo’s ID card] gave me goose bumps,” said Mimi, Nemo’s wife.
They were accompanied to the household registration office in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) by Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) secretary-general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔).
The organization provided Nemo with pro bono support.
It is a Taipei-based nongovernmental organization dedicated to promoting LGBTQ+ rights.
“With [Nemo’s] new ID card, every day is a gift, and every day is a new start,” Chien said. “No one should have to endure such a long ordeal just to obtain an identity card that matches their true self.”
The Taipei High Administrative Court on May 30 ruled in favor of Nemo and ordered the authorities to update the gender designation on his ID card.
The court revoked the decision by the household registration office to deny Nemo’s application to change the gender on his ID card from female to male.
Nemo’s case was brought to the court in December 2022 after his application was rejected in June that year and his appeal was denied a month later.
Nemo, who has identified as male since childhood, was cited in a TAPCPR news release issued in May as expressing excitement at the prospect of being recognized as a man in official documents.
Nemo’s application was rejected because he could not provide proof of having undergone gender-affirming surgery, a requirement he is unable to fulfill due to a previous operation following an unrelated issue, the organization said.
Undergoing any additional major surgeries might pose life-threatening risks to Nemo, it said.
The household registration office based its decision on a directive issued by the Ministry of the Interior in 2008, which required applicants wanting to change the gender designation on their ID card to provide medical certificates issued by two different doctors confirming a gender dysphoria diagnosis.
Surgery involving the removal of the breasts, uterus and ovaries was also required.
The office on Friday said that it followed the law at all times when handling Nemo’s case.
The verdict in May marked the second such case in Taiwan handled by the TAPCPR, after the same court issued a landmark ruling in 2021 in favor of the request of a transgender woman known as “Xiao E” (小E) to change her gender designation on her ID card.
Nemo said that he hopes his case would help others who are unable to undergo surgery, yet wish to alter the gender designation on their ID cards.
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