European Top Court Rules Member States Must Acknowledge Changes To ‘Gender Identity’

European union (EU) member states are required to recognize “gender identity” changes processed in other parts of the EU after the Court of Justice sided with a transgender man’s lawsuit against Romania on Friday.

The country of Romania refused to accept name and gender changes brought up by Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi in Britain when it was still a part of the EU, the ruling states. Romania’s refusal to update identity documents was a violation of citizenship rights and “free movement,” the court ruled.

“A Member State that does not permit recognition and entry in the birth certificate of a national of that Member State of a change of first name and gender identity lawfully acquired in another Member State, when exercising the right to free movement and residence, with the consequence that that person is obliged to initiate, before a court, new proceedings for a change of gender identity in the first Member State, which disregard the change that was previously lawfully acquired in that other Member State,” the ruling says.

“In that regard, it is irrelevant that the request for recognition and entry of the change of first name and gender identity was made in that first Member State on a date on which the withdrawal from the European Union of the other Member State had already taken effect,” the ruling continues.

Romania denied Mirzarafie-Ahi a new birth certificate and an updated passport, barring travel and everyday activities like getting mail or using public transportation, The Washington Post reported. After moving to the United Kingdom, Mirzarafie-Ahi received a “gender recognition certificate,” when Britain was on its way out because of Brexit.