Self-ID law passed in Germany

Germany drowns women's rights and child protection

Apr. 18, 2024

person's hands — Photo by Blake Cheek on Unsplash

On Friday, 12 April 2024, the German Bundestag passed the so-called „Self-Determination Act“ (“Selbstbestimmungsgesetz“)^[1] . As with the adoption of the draft bill in the summer of 2023, the date for the second and third readings and adoption of the law was announced at very short notice and only three days in advance. The date itself was set for a Friday lunchtime, when the Bundestag is expected to be sparsely populated. This foreshadowed that the law would also be pushed through in Germany with the „no debate“ strategy of IGLYO, Dentons and Reuters^[2] , as this legislation does not stand up to public debate.

The Wednesday before, there was a final meeting of the Family Affairs Committee, which cleared the way for the bill to go to the Bundestag.

Protection against abuse cancelled

The adopted amendment^[3] removed key protective clauses from the previously adopted draft. Among other things, the review of a person before a change of sex entry suggested by the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior was removed. This deletion was fueled by the large-scale „Yes to self-determination“ campaign, which reinterpreted any protection against abuse as „discrimination“ and „mistrust“ and was supported by well-known influencers and public institutions – against all reason.

The bill in parliament

The debate in parliament gave voice to feminist criticism, at least through Susanne Hierl and Sarah Wagenknecht^[4] . With the exception of a few abstentions or votes not cast and a few sparse „no“ votes from the FDP, the Self-Determination Act was supported by all three „traffic light“ parties (SPD, Greens, FDP) as well as „Die Linke“. The law was rejected by the CDU/CSU, the Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance and the AfD^[5] .

The vote was by roll call, so you can get an overview of the voting behaviour of individual MPs^[6] . Author and feminist Christine Finke analyses on Twitter that there was only a 10-vote lead for the law if you compare the yes votes with the votes for no, abstain or not cast^[7]. Nevertheless, it was astonishing how many MPs had cast a vote, even though the parliament was largely empty on that Friday afternoon. Some wonder how these MPs were able to cast a vote in absentia.

As a result, several members of the Bundestag, including the German Chancellor^[8] , emphasized on Twitter that this law does not take anything away from anyone. The outrage below the tweets showed that many do not agree with this. Others announced that they were quitting their party-membership - including several members of the FDP and the Greens.

As a central and powerful country in Europe, Germany now has one of the worst SelfID laws ever.

Self-Determination Act – Summary

Any man can declare himself a woman by a simple declaration and without any checks at the registry office.
The change of gender entry does not have to be permanent, but may be changed once a year.
Various entries can be selected: man, woman, diverse, no entry. These may be used by:
1. People who want to change a gender entry from female to male or male to female
2. People who desire a gender entry „diverse“ (people with variants of gender development AKA „intersex“ or „nonbinary“) - without presenting any certificates
3. People who do not want a gender entry („nonbinary“)
The fantasy gender identity „nonbinary“ is thus declared a legal fact in the Self-Determination Act.
Parents can determine the gender entry of their children themselves from the age of a baby. From the age of 5, children should declare to the registrar that they agree to the change of gender entry.
From the age of 14, young people are allowed to determine their own gender. However, parental consent is required. If the parents do not agree, a family court can be called in to override the parents' veto. For separated parents, there is a risk that the parent who refuses to change the gender entry will lose custody.
In the case of minors, the gender entry may be changed at any time.
A ban on disclosure prohibits naming the sex and former name of a person. This prohibition now also applies to family members in the adopted law. The intention is decisive here. Anyone who does not name the gender and former name with the intention of causing offence and in a friendly manner is to remain unpunished. Anyone who violates the ban on disclosure will face a fine of up to EUR 10,000.
Quotas for women are cancelled. Gender identity, not sex, is the decisive factor for quotas for women.
In the event of war, men are not allowed to declare themselves women and are conscripted as men.
On the birth certificate of newborns, the gender identity entry of the parents at the time of birth is taken into account – not the sex.
In the case of legally incompetent persons, e.g. mentally disabled adults, the carers decide on the gender entry.
Sex-specific women's spaces, women's refuges, women's prisons and women's sport should only be able to be maintained in individual cases via the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) and domestic law.

Some possible consequences of this irresponsible legislation

Changing the sex entry of babies and young children at will by their parents or guardians makes it easier to conceal the identity of these children. This can be used for child abuse and child trafficking
Parents can use the loophole of changing their children's sex entry at will to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls for religious reasons. This is because the circumcision of boys is permitted in Germany for religious reasons.
Babies and small children are no longer protected from the fictional world views of their parents and carers.
The draft does not contain any regulations on gender reassignment surgery, but it lays the foundations. Giving young children the idea that they can change their sex paves the way for physically invasive measures.
The fact that „nonbinary“ is defined as a gender identity prepares the ground for elective operations and hormone administration for this target group, as health insurance companies have so far not paid for mastectomies, for example, for women who declare themselves to be „nonbinary“.
Incapacitated adults – for example mentally disabled people – are also at the mercy of their carers’ ideas about their „gender identity“.
As the parents’ entry in the birth certificate of newborn children can be falsified, the right of these children to know their own parentage is violated. On top of this, they are liable to prosecution if they refer to their father as the father.
Quotas for women are a thing of the past. This also means that the function of an equal opportunities officer, which was previously reserved for women and was intended to ensure the implementation of Chapter 3 of the German Basic Law – equal rights for women – is no longer necessary.
Women's prisons have been de facto abolished in Germany. As a women's prison can only refuse a man who identifies as a woman on grounds of discrimination in individual cases, a man can be transferred to a women's prison at his request. This is already happening. Experimental hormone treatments and plastic surgery for these offenders in prison are already financed by the general public. At the end of his sentence, the man can change his gender entry back to „man“. This is already happening in Germany.
In women's sport, too, the decision as to whether a man may participate in a women’s team is deferred to the club. If the club refuses to do so, the man could sue his way onto the team via the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG).
Since women are liable to prosecution if they name the sex of a man who has changed his gender entry, they can no longer defend themselves against the presence of a man in previously sex-specific spaces. No woman knows whether a man has changed his gender entry. A man can therefore simply walk into these rooms and claim this. After all, he no longer has to make any changes to his external appearance. This creates a chilling effect for girls and women. Previous safe spaces become spaces of fear.
In the event of war, the legislator knows who is a man. However, it gives men enough time to change their gender entry before a possible armed conflict.
A man with dual nationality can be registered as a man in Spain and as a woman in Germany.
There are no rules for sex-based statistics, e.g. violence and crime statistics. It is therefore to be expected that these statistics will no longer be meaningful in the future and, above all, will conceal the predominantly male perpetrators.
Since there is no longer any verification before a change of civil status, criminals can use this law to change their identity at will.

Men's rights activists are becoming more aggressive

Since the law was passed, it has become clear that men’s rights activists are becoming more aggressive on social media. The law does not appease them, but rather encourages them that their contempt for women is appropriate towards feminists. Similar to the legalization of prostitution in Germany, this law will therefore support ALL men in their conception of girls and women as objects and in their claim to power over women.

We feminists, who have been confronted with the aggression of trans activism for years, know that we are dealing with violent extremists. The law legitimizes their aggression instead of setting clear limits.

Several men’s rights activists are already calling for a further tightening of the law to the detriment of women's rights and child protection. They refer to the German Basic Law and the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG).

For over 40 years, they have stubbornly continued to weaken the existing, comparatively liberal legislation of the Transsexuals Act through court proceedings. For over 40 years, they have been granted a legal fiction in Germany – at the expense of women. They are working on a progressive dissolution of boundaries. The aim is to completely abolish sex as a legal category.

At the same time, this reinforces the fiction that sex is self-determinable. This in turn provides the argumentative basis for body-invasive measures - even in children.

Anyone who understands it as a human right to determine their own sex also understands it as a human right to modify their body hormonally and surgically according to their own ideas, financed by the general public. In Germany, too, trans-activist academics fantasize about seeing puberty only as an option and handing out puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones to everyone on request.

Feminist protest

In just a few days, the feminist protest against the Self-Determination Act was able to mobilize over 100 women and men from all over Germany to come to Berlin on a Friday. For the first time, we were confronted with a large number of press representatives at this rally. And although some broadcasters – such as ARTE – simply ignored our contributions, several previously ignorant papers suddenly expressed clear criticism of this law.

However, it is too late, as the law has been passed and is now only going through the Federal Council pro forma, where it is no longer subject to approval. After that, it still has to be reviewed and signed by the Federal President in order to be fully applicable from 1 November 2024.

Possible further steps

We now only have one option left, which the trans activists are also considering: taking the matter to the Federal Constitutional Court. Because, as a legal opinion has already shown, the Self-Determination Act is unconstitutional in several respects.

The lawyer Wednesday explains the three options on Twitter^[9] :

An abstract action for judicial review^[10]
A specific action for judicial review^[11]
A constitutional complaint^[12]

At least 25% of the members of the Bundestag or a state government must submit an application for an abstract review of standards. The abstract action for judicial review can be initiated immediately. The CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag would have the necessary strength. Alternatively, the Bavarian state government, in which none of the three traffic light parties are represented, could be considered.

A petition can be signed in favour of this step, which also provides a sample letter. Wednesday recommends writing to as many politicians in the CDU/CSU and the Bavarian state government as possible.

Feminists have fear, anger and courage

For us feminists in Germany, the law is a bitter setback, because if sex becomes arbitrary and every man can be a woman, all women's rights are also null and void. After years of fighting against this law, many of us are very exhausted, deeply frustrated, angry but also very scared. Some of us expect that the reprisals, charges and legal proceedings against us will increase. We have seen how eager to sue the men are who claim a woman’s identity for themselves. There is no understanding of the rights and safety of women and girls.

At the same time, however, we have already been able to get many women on our side in this short time. Some are planning to push ahead with legal proceedings in order to emphasize the unconstitutionality of the law and – as in other countries – to fight for the safety of girls and women through legal proceedings.

In Germany, feminist resistance is becoming increasingly important, as the legalization of surrogacy and egg donation is also currently under discussion and maternal rights, for example, are coming under increasing pressure from FDP Justice Minister Marco Buschmann. We are similarly concerned about the plan to tighten the law that has been in place since 2020 to protect against conversion treatments and to penalize parents who want to protect their children from the body-damaging interventions of transgender medicine.

Fortunately, some of us are already organized in new groups, initiatives and associations and can draw on the experience of second-wave feminists. All the major women’s organisations in Germany, on the other hand, have turned out to be traitors to girls and women.

A lot has to be rebuilt and fought for. Let's get started!

^[1] https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/20/090/2009049.pdf

^[2] https://www.trust.org/contentAsset/raw-data/8cf56139-c7bb-447c-babf-dd5ae56cd177/file

^[3] https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/20/110/2011004.pdf

^[4] https://www.bundestag.de/parlament/plenum/abstimmung/abstimmung?id=910

^[5] https://www.bundestag.de/parlament/plenum/abstimmung/abstimmung?id=910

^[6]h ttps://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/20/090/2009049.pdf

^[7] https://x.com/Mama_arbeitet/status/1778807638987313510

^[8] https://x.com/Bundeskanzler/status/1778779691010203720

^[9] https://x.com/EverydayisWedn3/status/1780226524165124406

^[10] https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/DE/Verfahren/Wichtige-Verfahrensarten/Abstrakte-Normenkontrolle/abstrakte-normenkontrolle_node.html

^[11] https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/DE/Verfahren/Wichtige-Verfahrensarten/Konkrete-Normenkontrolle/konkrete-normenkontrolle_node.html