You’re invited! Join LifeSite in celebrating 25 years of pro-life and pro-family reporting at our anniversary Gala August 17th in Naples, Florida. Tickets and sponsorships can be purchased by clicking here.
BERLIN (LifeSiteNews) – German children as young as 14 may be permitted to present themselves formally as members of the opposite sex without parental consent.
Germany’s Family Minister Lisa Paus and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann presented the so-called “self-determination” law on June 30, 2022. The proposed legislation would allow anyone to change their gender and their first name legally once a year.
Until now, people who desired to change their registered gender in their passport needed two psychiatric reports, and a court decided whether or not to grant their requests. Under the new legislation, Germans could change their legal gender and first name by submitting a simple declaration to the civil registry.
READ: Poll shows the number of Americans who believe biological sex defines one’s gender rises to 60%
To change the names and genders of children under the age of 14, parents or another legal custodian has to submit the declaration. However, minors from the age of 14 and up can submit the declaration themselves with the consent of their parents. However, if there were a disagreement between parents and a teenager, a family court would decide whether or not to grant the wish of the adolescent to change his gender and could therefore replace the consent of the parents.
The new law asserts that it aims only at regulating the change of name and registered gender. Physical measures such as gender reassignment surgery will not be regulated in the self-determination law.
Several doctors have warned, however, that medical gender reassignment procedures would often follow the legal change of gender, including at an age when children could not yet assess the consequences of the procedures and the permanence of their sense of identity.