For gender equality. The Netherlands will remove gender from ID cards

Society's approach to gender is slowly but surely shifting. For many people around the world, the division into men and women is an unpleasant, unnecessary box. And the Netherlands has also moved towards a non-conflicting future. Within five years, a column with the gender designation will disappear from the identity cards of its inhabitants. The Minister for Education, Science and Culture, Ingrid van Engelshoven, announced this in a letter to the Chamber of Deputies at the beginning of July.

"The cabinet wants to help people who do not feel clearly like men or women," says the letter, according to RTL News. The letters denoting the two traditional sexes thus leave a number of identifying details written on the identity cards. The Netherlands will therefore join Germany as a country where identity cards do not reveal the gender of their holder. Implementation should take place in either 2024 or 2025. The Minister also emphasized that the change would not affect passports.

In this way, the government will get rid of two alleged problems in one go. Over the next few years, the local authorities planned a mass revision of ID cards. Therefore, from a step onwards, they promise both cost savings and silence of dissatisfied votes, which have been fighting for similar regulations for a long time.

Specifically, these are interest groups such as COC Nederland, a Dutch association of women and men within the LGBTQ community, or NNID and TNN. "Deregistration offers a solution for people who have unnecessary questions about their gender, for example at the border," he said of the above-mentioned organization, according to the Trouw Daily.

Gender reassignment in the Netherlands
As for people of indeterminate sex, the Dutch government has tried to make life easier for the minority before. Last April, it approved a directive to make it easier to change gender in identification documents. The locals used to need a certificate as a form of confirmation from a doctor or psychologist. Today, on the other hand, adults only need to fill out a form. Under the age of 16 have the right to file the same application in court.

Other possible steps promoted by institutions representing the minorities are the abolition of gender registration on the passport and, in the case of a newborn, on the birth certificate. The first mentioned option is not possible in the territory of the European Union, because the inclusion of gender in it is mandatory. And due to the ambiguity of the Dutch case law, the second option cannot be introduced yet.

Source: Reflex.cz