Taiwan court rules trans woman can legally change gender without surgery

A court in Taiwan has told a transgender woman that she can legally change her identification documents without having to undergo gender-affirming surgery.

The ruling was delivered on Monday (26 August) by the Taipei High Administrative Court. It comes four years after the woman, Lispeth Wu, initially filed her request, as per a report by Them.

Wu, who has dual Taiwan-U.S. citizenship, applied to legally change her gender on her ID card and other legal documents on 20 November 2020. She submitted two hospital diagnoses of gender dysphoria and her U.S. passport, which identifies her as female.

Currently, the government of Taiwan requires individuals wishing to change their legal gender to provide evidence of a mental health assessment, as well documents confirming that they’ve undergone gender-affirming surgery. Given that Wu did not provide evidence of the latter, her application was denied.

However, the court overturned the decision to deny Wu’s application after ruling that providing proof of such an intimate surgical procedure violates the Taiwanese Constitution’s proportionality doctrine.

“Administrative agencies should stop being lazy, change unconstitutional and illegal interpretations as soon as possible, and give transgender citizens the right to gender autonomy”

– Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights

Instead, according to Focus Taiwan, the ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court suggested that because Wu had been living as a woman since 2017, it meant she met one of the criteria. It makes Wu the fifth Taiwanese citizen to successfully change their legal gender on their identity documents without having to provide evidence that they’ve undergone surgery.

The decision continues a steady trend upwards when it comes for LGBTQ+ rights in Taiwan, which in 2019 became the first Asian country to introduce equal marriage.

In a statement, the activist group Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, who supported Wu’s legal case through pro-bono legal representation, said they hoped the court would make future decisions on a case-by-case basis and not “left to the judiciary”.

“Administrative agencies should stop being lazy, change unconstitutional and illegal interpretations as soon as possible, and give transgender citizens the right to gender autonomy,” they said.

“We congratulate Yuxuan, who can finally have her gender identity recognised by law in the land she loves and live the way she wants!”