Starting on January 1, Switzerland’s civil registry office will allow individuals to legally change their gender, making the country the leader of Europe’s gender-identification movement. Among the few countries on the continent that allow a person to legally change gender without hormone therapy, medical diagnosis, or further evaluation or bureaucratic steps is Switzerland, which is joined by Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, and Norway.
As part of the new rules written into the Swiss civil code, anyone age 16 and above who is not under legal guardianship can change their gender and legal name by self-declaring at the civil registry office. Those under adult protection and younger people will need guardianship consent. Transgender people in Switzerland currently need to provide a certificate from a medical professional confirming their transgender identity, a change from the current set of regionally prescribed standards.
Switzerland’s semi-autonomous cantons may also require a person to undergo hormone treatment or anatomical transition in order to legally change their gender. For name changes, proof may be needed that the new name has been in use for several years unofficially.
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Civil marriage became legal in September in Switzerland, a country known for its social conservatism. With the new gender change laws, Switzerland joins a select group of just two dozen countries that want to decouple gender choice from medical procedures. In some European countries, including Denmark, Greece and France, medical procedures such as sex reassignment surgery, sterilization, and psychiatric evaluation are no longer a requirement. These countries require further steps or conditions.
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