Belgium moves towards introducing ‘X’ as third gender on official documents

People dancing at an LGBT Pride parade in Europe in 2017. 

Credit: AFP

Belgium plans to introduce the letter “X” as a third gender on official documents, along with male or female. The country’s new coalition government has pledged to be more inclusive since coming to office last month.

Rather than being forced to pick between male or female, citizens could instead pick the letter X on their birth certificates and identity cards, under the proposed new rules.

“This is an ethically sensitive issue, I am aware of it," Vincent Van Quickenborne, the federal justice minister said. “So I want to involve parliament. I hope that the discussion can be done in all openness and freedom”.

The decision follows a Constitutional Court ruling last year, which found Belgium’s transgender laws were not inclusive enough.

In 2017, a law was passed to allow people to change the gender assigned to them at birth on their birth certificates and official documents without having a psychological exam or operation.

The Constitutional Court said that was restrictive and discriminatory because people would still have to choose between ticking the male or female box on the documents.

The law must take into account a person’s right to self-determination and not retain binary masculine or feminine genders, the court said.

A policy note released by Mr Van Quickenborne said that the “the legislation on sex registration will be amended to comply with the case law of the Constitutional Court”.

Belgium is one of the most liberal countries in Europe. In 2011, Belgium became the first country in modern history to be led by an openly gay man, Elio Di Rupo.

New Deputy Prime Minster Petra De Sutter, a member of the seven party coalition government, is the highest ranking transgender politician in Europe. In 2014 she became the first transgender Belgian MP and also served in the European Parliament.

The move in Belgium, which could face some opposition from conservative parties outside of government, comes as some countries across Europe move towards more liberal policies.

Germany does not insist on a gender on its identity card, while in the Netherlands, identity cards will not state whether or not the holder is male or female from 2024 or 2025.

The production of identity cards is due to be reviewed in that time, making the measure cost-effective.

The law will still have to be changed to allow for the new arrangements.

The Dutch government has not yet made a decision on whether to apply the same changes to passports, although three Dutch citizens have an X on their passports after winning legal battles British judges warned the Home Office in March this year that its refusal to issue X passports could breach human rights in the future but was lawful for now.

India, Nepal, Argentina, Australia, Canada, have introduced the gender ‘X’ in  passports and identity cards.

But EU member states Poland has imposed a crackdown on LGBT+ rights, which has led to global criticism of Warsaw.

Fifty ambassadors write an open letter calling for an end to hostility towards gay and transgender rights in September after a string of towns declared themselves “LGBT-free zones”.