“Trans” is a trigger word for some, with the planned self-determination law it is at the center of the socio-political agenda of the traffic light coalition, which relies on liberalization in the legal structure around families and identity. Particularly controversial is the plan to give minors from the age of 14 the right to decide on their own first name and gender entry by self-declaration and with the consent of their parents or legal means. But parts of the SPD don’t go far enough.
The Berlin district association Tempelhof-Schoeneberg therefore demanded at the weekend: “From the age of seven, minors should submit the declaration for changing their name and gender entry themselves”. In the case of the SPD, this means the title of the application: “Trans* liberation now”; Parents also appear in it: It should be “checked whether the legal guardians of trans* children can be obliged to provide counseling”, among other things.
Gender researcher Till Randolf Amelung criticized the approach to WELT. If facts were created so early in the civil registry, he said, there would be a risk of cementing the finding that gender dysphoria was firmly anchored in the feeling, while childlike uneasiness about one’s own sex was in many cases temporary.
Once such concrete steps have been taken, said Amelung, who is himself a trans man, withdrawing could be “shameful”. But because there will always be children who lead the gender change on paper on the right path, it is important “that such a step is secured by parents and therapists”.
The Berlin SPD initiative meanwhile provides that seven-year-olds can take this step, if necessary against the parents’ will, by means of a family court; the current draft of the Self-Determination Act only provides for this option for children aged 14 and over. If the process comes to a head, the child should have “a procedural supervisor who is familiar with the situation and the needs of trans* people”.
But can a seven, eight or nine-year-old child already know that they are “trans*” and that a “trans*” caregiver is a good idea? Gender researcher Amelung warns against relying on overly “affirmative” approaches, i.e. those that take gender claims per se to be true.
“There is a risk that, for example, psychological comorbidities that lead to discomfort in one’s own sex are not sufficiently stabilized and that everything narrows down too much to the point that a transition can solve all problems,” said Amelung; in the UK and Sweden, such findings would have led to a change in direction in dealing with gender dysphoria among minors. An “open-ended, therapeutic-explorative approach” is therefore important.
The initiative leaves out whether the consultants and process supervisors planned by the SPD should pursue such approaches. The SPD Tempelhof-Schoeneberg initially left a corresponding request unanswered. The application of the district association is addressed to the address of the next SPD federal party conference. The federal party was also initially unable to comment on the application.
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