Japan high court backs gender status change without surgery
By Karin Kaneko | Staff writer
Jul 10, 2024
A Japanese high court ruled on Wednesday that a transgender woman should be able to change the sex assigned to them at birth in their family registry without having to undergo surgery, as is currently required by law — a development that is likely to put more pressure on the government to revise the law.
The 2003 law on gender dysphoria sets out two contentious requirements that require surgery for a person to have their legal gender status changed:
The person should have no reproductive glands, or have their functions of reproductive glands permanently lost
The person should have a body resembling the genital organs of the opposite gender
In October last year, the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the first of the two requirements was unconstitutional. However, it did not rule on the second clause and sent the case back to the high court.
Wednesday’s high court ruling in western Japan stated that the plaintiff already resembles the opposite gender in bodily appearance — a result of hormone therapy — and that there was no need for her to receive sterilization surgery.
Kazuyuki Minami, the plaintiff’s lawyer, requested that the location of the high court remain anonymous for privacy reasons.
The decision also touched on the plaintiff’s right to avoid having to undergo an invasive surgical procedure.
“(The law) gives them a tough either-or choice of having the surgery, thereby eliminating the right not to damage one’s body, or eliminating the right to enjoy the legal benefits based on their gender identity,” according to the ruling.
The plaintiff, a trans woman in her 30s, issued a statement through her lawyer, expressing her happiness and appreciation for her supporters.
“The wish I’ve had for as long as I can remember has finally come true,” the plaintiff said. “I am very happy to be free from living with the difficulties of having a gap between my social gender and the gender on my family registry.”
The plaintiff’s lawyer also welcomed the high court’s decision.
“Although the ruling didn’t say outright that it was unconstitutional, it was a good decision because it said the surgery requirement could be in violation of the Constitution,” he said.
These exact policies still are central to a lot of gender ID laws around the world, and used to be a part of them in many other countries that only ditched them recently. In the case of Germany, these were on the books as late as 2011, and there was even a clause that retroactively voided changing your gender ID if you used frozen pre-transition sperm or eggs to have children.
In the case of Germany, these were on the books as late as 2011, and there was even a clause that retroactively voided changing your gender ID if you used frozen pre-transition sperm or eggs to have children.
We’ve only gotten anything close to self ID this year, and it came after over a year of a veritable shitfest of political fearmongering against trans people, and the law is still full of bs clauses like “no changing your gender to female in case of war” or “sports organizations can decide for themselves if they want to recognize your gender, and if businesses want to force you to use the wrong bathroom that’s up to them to decide”. And if i look at past court judgements, none of that crap will hold up if anybody has the nerve, time and money to fight through all circuits against it, but it’ll take decades before that happens for every single paragraph of pure nonsense in that law.
I mean, it’s better than what we had before, i’m glad i can finally get my papers in order before the year is over and let me not even begin about the horror stories i’ve heard of some of the psychiatric evaluations you used to have to go through to change your name, but this shit has seriously driven home the point that i’m still nothing but a political football to our legislature.
Most people do not know this, but many countries in the West had genital surgery requirements for legally changing your gender before the 2010s. For example, in the Netherlands this used to be part of a trans law from 1985 that wasn’t changed until 2014.
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Japan high court backs gender status change without surgery
By Karin Kaneko | Staff writer
Jul 10, 2024
A Japanese high court ruled on Wednesday that a transgender woman should be able to change the sex assigned to them at birth in their family registry without having to undergo surgery, as is currently required by law — a development that is likely to put more pressure on the government to revise the law.
The 2003 law on gender dysphoria sets out two contentious requirements that require surgery for a person to have their legal gender status changed:
In October last year, the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the first of the two requirements was unconstitutional. However, it did not rule on the second clause and sent the case back to the high court.
Wednesday’s high court ruling in western Japan stated that the plaintiff already resembles the opposite gender in bodily appearance — a result of hormone therapy — and that there was no need for her to receive sterilization surgery.
Kazuyuki Minami, the plaintiff’s lawyer, requested that the location of the high court remain anonymous for privacy reasons.
The decision also touched on the plaintiff’s right to avoid having to undergo an invasive surgical procedure.
“(The law) gives them a tough either-or choice of having the surgery, thereby eliminating the right not to damage one’s body, or eliminating the right to enjoy the legal benefits based on their gender identity,” according to the ruling.
The plaintiff, a trans woman in her 30s, issued a statement through her lawyer, expressing her happiness and appreciation for her supporters.
“The wish I’ve had for as long as I can remember has finally come true,” the plaintiff said. “I am very happy to be free from living with the difficulties of having a gap between my social gender and the gender on my family registry.”
The plaintiff’s lawyer also welcomed the high court’s decision.
“Although the ruling didn’t say outright that it was unconstitutional, it was a good decision because it said the surgery requirement could be in violation of the Constitution,” he said.
This policing of the body is obscene and really shows how much cisheterosexuality is an enforced regime. So, good riddance.
These exact policies still are central to a lot of gender ID laws around the world, and used to be a part of them in many other countries that only ditched them recently. In the case of Germany, these were on the books as late as 2011, and there was even a clause that retroactively voided changing your gender ID if you used frozen pre-transition sperm or eggs to have children.
Wtf
We’ve only gotten anything close to self ID this year, and it came after over a year of a veritable shitfest of political fearmongering against trans people, and the law is still full of bs clauses like “no changing your gender to female in case of war” or “sports organizations can decide for themselves if they want to recognize your gender, and if businesses want to force you to use the wrong bathroom that’s up to them to decide”. And if i look at past court judgements, none of that crap will hold up if anybody has the nerve, time and money to fight through all circuits against it, but it’ll take decades before that happens for every single paragraph of pure nonsense in that law.
I mean, it’s better than what we had before, i’m glad i can finally get my papers in order before the year is over and let me not even begin about the horror stories i’ve heard of some of the psychiatric evaluations you used to have to go through to change your name, but this shit has seriously driven home the point that i’m still nothing but a political football to our legislature.
We need a trans JDWON now
Most people do not know this, but many countries in the West had genital surgery requirements for legally changing your gender before the 2010s. For example, in the Netherlands this used to be part of a trans law from 1985 that wasn’t changed until 2014.