Germany plans to ease rules for formal changes of gender

By GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — The German government has presented plans to make it easier for transgender people to formally change their name and gender. Under the planned “self-determination law” outlined Thursday, adults would be able to change their first name and official gender at registry offices. Germany’s existing “transsexual law” took effect in 1981. It requires individuals to obtain two expert assessments and a court’s authorization for a legal gender change. Over the years, Germany’s top court struck down other provisions that required transgender people to get divorced and sterilized, and to undergo gender-transition surgery. Germany’s minister for families says the current rules are humiliating and superfluous.