The Constitutional Court agreed with the trans man, gender can be changed even without surgery

Although born female, he identifies as male, refers to himself in the masculine gender, wears men’s clothing, and has a masculine visage. As in court proceedings, in his case the masculine gender will be used in this text.

In 2019, a trans man applied for a change of name and surname, as well as an official change of gender from female to male.

But the officials did not comply with his request because he did not provide a confirmation of the completion of sex change treatment, i.e. that he had undergone surgery. He fought against this with a lawsuit, but the justice system refused to comply with him.

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A constitutional complaint followed and the plenum decided to accept his arguments.

“Legal requirements for surgical reassignment of the genitals and disabling of reproductive function are unconstitutional because they violate the human dignity of trans people,” stated reporter judge Jaromír Jirsa.

“Surgical procedures are forced automatically on all people seeking to change their legal status, including those who do not want to undergo them at all,” continued Jirsa.

“Requiring, without exception, the performance of an invasive and irreversible intervention, which is both risky and threatens the health of the persons concerned, just to maintain legal certainty and stability is clearly unreasonable. The target can be reached in more gentle ways,” he added.

The long-term inaction of the legislator is unsustainable, especially in a situation where the Czech Republic remains one of the few European countries where the legal requirement for gender reassignment surgery remains

For the purposes of “status” gender change, it would be possible, for example, to use the diagnostic opinions of several independent specialized sexologists demonstrating the irreversibility of the individual concerned’s belief regarding the change of gender, supplemented by a time test, the judges proposed a solution.

“The task of the Constitutional Court is, among other things, to ‘catalyze’ democratic discussion in situations where it has not yet taken place or when it has been dysfunctional for a long time. This is exactly what the Constitutional Court is doing in the current case,” Jirsa explained the intervention of the judges.

“The long-term inaction of the legislator is unsustainable, especially in a situation where the Czech Republic remains one of the few European countries where the legal requirement for gender reassignment surgery persists,” added the judge.

He wanted to contribute to change

The applicant himself welcomed the court’s decision. “I didn’t particularly want to go to court, but it was an opportunity to contribute to change and see it through,” the man wrote to Novinkám.

“The court’s positive decision could perhaps be a hope for those who are not sure whether they want castration or do not want it or cannot undergo it. That the situation is moving somewhere and they could hopefully change the documents in the foreseeable future without the need for the aforementioned discriminatory condition,” the man pointed out.

I don’t want to have to worry for the rest of my life about pulling out documents, if someone won’t solve the fact that the data does not match my identity and how they will react to it

“It’s annoying for me to constantly deal with situations with documents, for example just to open a bank account, because the person either notices that I’m listed as a woman or that I have a five in my birth number, which women have after all,” the man explained.

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life worrying about pulling out documents, if someone won’t solve the fact that the data doesn’t match my identity and how they will react to it. It seems senseless to me to undergo an irreversible operation for this, which I do not want,” he continued.

“It may seem like a small thing, but they add up quickly. If I could change my documents without unwanted intervention in my body, I wouldn’t have to stress about every situation requiring the presentation of documents and I would have a greater sense of privacy and choice with whom I will share this personal information,” he added.