Why we want to use the #SBGG, but can’t celebrate.
The Self-Determination Act takes effect today. Like all queer rights, the freedom to determine one’s own gender was not simply given to us as a gift, nor was it considered self-evident by society. Activists, trans politicians and self-advocacy organizations had to fight hard for it until the very end.
It took years of activism, countless years of unpaid educational work and explaining in the media. We must never forget the decades of resource-consuming legal battles over the Transsexuals Act (TSG), which violated constitution and human rights.
But now, servants at the registry office can – and must! – finally correct entries and can issue the right documents.
We are delighted for all those who will now receive their long-awaited appointments at the registry offices in the near future. We welcome this step away from a pathologising, paternalistic, psychologically infringing approach to gender diversity. How much hiding and pretending, how much contempt would those affected have been spared if the German state had recognised the simple fact that everyone knows best which gender they do or don’t identify with?
And yet the joy is accompanied by skepticism, sorrow and a sense of anger.
Scepticism about whether we will have to continue to take legal action against authorities that want to create new hurdles and restrictions, against companies that oppose equal treatment and want to undermine the General Equality Act (AGG).
Sorrow, that anti-feminist, anti-queer actors in the media will continue to push ahead with their smear campaigns and want to turn back the wheels of time.
And anger about all the loopholes that have been carved into the law, about the lack of legal eligibility for good healthcare, about the lack of recognition and reparations for all the suffering perpetrated with the TSG.
The waiting and retention periods continue to breathe the spirit of pathologisation and state control; for inter people in particular, they represent a legal regression. Anti-feminist fuelled mistrust manifests itself in hurdles for people who are not of legal age and not legally competent. Instead of centering self-determination, dependence is cemented.
We reject the invention of the ‘military gender’ just as firmly as the continued marginalisation of stateless persons and people without an permanent residence permit. No matter if they have been living in Germany for decades, or were even born here, they are not allowed to receive the provisions of the SBGG.
You can find a more detailed description of various issues with SBGG here, for example. The group ‘Selbstbestimmung selbst gemacht’ has therefore set about drafting its own legal proposal.
In addition to these restrictions, other problematic regulations must also be abolished. The Parentage Act must be reformed and all marriage privileges must be removed. All families are entitled to support, regardless of whether they conform to anachronistic religious norms or not. Regardless of their origin, their passport and their bank balance, all people should be able to live, to be free and to feel safe – there is still a lot to do for all of us before that is achieved!
We don’t just want the correct papers and be adressed properly.
We have a utopia that goes far beyond that: we want to disempower gender as a hierarchical category. We want to question it as a means of control and oppression, as an instrument of imposed physical and social conditioning and correction. And we don’t mean this purely discursively, but also practically. Use your rights where the law allows it – and break it where it wants to break you. Let’s free ourselves from the shackles of the norm. Queer up your life instead of being exploited by the state, nation or patriarchy.
Whether you are cis or trans – have your entries changed, try out new names, or simply get your gender entry removed from the register. Together we will corrupt the state gender control and undermine the enforced categorisation. Because we don’t want a warm place in the ladies’ sauna, we want to set fire to all the narrow gender norms!