A few European countries are making progress towards changing laws to recognise people who do not want to be labelled as a particular gender. Changing laws around gender is proving to be slow and complicated but, the process in these countries has begun: -
Iceland
In 2019 Iceland moved forward with the Gender Autonomy Act, making historic changes to their official Registry of Names. Icelandic tradition has been that the father gives his children his first name as their last name and then adds ‘son’ if the child is a boy or ‘dóttir’ if the child is a girl.
The Gender Autonomy Act has meant it is now legal to have the appellation ‘bur’, meaning "child", for people registered as nonbinary. Given names are also no longer male or female in the national registry. Anyone registering their gender as “X” can take gender neutral option of both their given and family names.
Germany
In 2019 the category “divers” was introduced on driving licenses, birth certificates and other official documents in Germany. This third gender option is only available only to ‘intersex’ people who provide a medical certificate. Technically this does not include non-binary or trans people but, it is a start.
Malta
Since 2018, people who do not want to register their gender as male or female in Malta can mark “X” on their IDs. Reportedly Malta has fewer bureaucratic procedures than most EU countries that require specification of gender.
Belgium
In January 2022, the Belgium government introduced a draft bill that will propose the removal of gender markers from identity cards but, not from the National Registry.
Netherlands
The Dutch government seeks to end “unnecessary” registration of gender where it is irrelevant and intend that by 2024, Dutch ID cards will be gender-free. The cities of Amsterdam and Utrecht have already removed gender markers in some documents.
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