First Case of Legal Gender Recognition for Transgender Women in Georgia

According to the Information provided by the Women's Initiatives Support Group, for the first time in Georgia, legal gender has been recognized for transgender women in Georgia.

The organization declares, that this case is the first precedent for the state to legally recognize trans female/male gender. Until now, there is no legislative or administrative mechanism for legal recognition of gender.

In March 2019, the European Human Rights Advocacy Center (EHRAC) and the Women's Initiative Support Group (WISG) responded to the Georgian government's observations on the case of two Georgian trans men protesting the Georgian government's refusal to change their gender marker in official documents and appeal it in Strasbourg.

The applicants applied to the European Court of Human Rights in 2017.

According to the WISG, both applicants' request for a change in their gender market to be reflected in official documents in accordance with their male gender identification was rejected by the Georgian authorities.

The decision was substantiated by the fact that a necessary condition for the change of the gender marker was sex reassignment surgery. Only then would it be possible to reflect changes in official documents.

The Strasbourg court has not yet made a decision on the case.