Georgia registers transgender person as requested gender for first time

Transgender milestone in Georgia

For the first time in Georgia, transgender people have received legal recognition.

On March 25, 2021, the Ministry of Justice of Georgia granted a historic request, allowing a transgender individual to have their legal gender changed from male to female.

To change her gender, the applicant submitted to the Public Services Agency a certificate from a medical institution stating that she had undergone gender reassignment surgery; she was given a second birth certificate with corrected data.

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The Women’s Initiatives Support Group says that since 2017, the Strasbourg Court has been considering the cases of two Georgian transgender people whose previous requests to have their gender changed in their official documents had been denied.

In their case, the Georgian authorities stated that a prerequisite for changing gender is a sex change operation.

“This requirement contradicts the standards set by the International and European Court of Human Rights. This is a restriction of the rights of people who do not want to undergo medical procedures, but are transgender, ”the organization said in a statement.