Transgender people in Lithuania will be allowed to change their legal name without undergoing gender reassignment surgery.
This follows the signing of of an order by Justice Minister Evelina Dobrovolska to permit legal name changes staring 31 December. The new regulation comes into effect on 2 February.
According to the Justice ministry, this will be “an important step that will help Lithuania to ensure partial implementation of the ruling the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued more than a decade ago, as well as the consolidation of human rights standards.”
It is worth noting that in 2007, Lithuania lost a case at the ECHR over the fact that there’s no gender reassignment regulation in Lithuania.
Interviewed by Outrage Magazine, Tomas V. Raskevičius, Chairman of Human Rights Committee in the Lithuanian Parliament, said: “Despite the fact that the national courts have enabled legal gender recognition since 2017, the process for changing one’s name or gender marker was very long and complicated. The current change will allow transgender persons to change their name in quick, accessible and transparent way. That’s definitely an achievement that was long overdue.”
However, those who wish to change their name on official documents still have to obtain a certificate from a Lithuanian or EU healthcare establishment of “diagnosed transgenderism”.
