To this day, it is as in France: on their identity cards, our Belgian neighbors have, next to their name and first name, the mention F or M, for female or male. Soon there will probably be nothing left. The government of the Liberal Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo is considering tabling a bill to this effect. This text would aim to delete, I quote, “any mention of a binary category, male or female”. In order to avoid any discrimination against transgender or intersex people, who do not recognize themselves exclusively in one of the two sexes. Initially, the government had considered creating a third category, under the letter X. There would therefore have been, on the identity document, F, M or X.
Finally, even if the final version of the text is still under discussion within the ministerial council, the public authorities consider it easier to remove any reference to sex. The impact will go beyond the symbol, since the identity card is linked in Belgium to many organizations, for example Social Security or Taxes. This arbitration follows a decision by the Belgian Constitutional Court, the highest body in the country: in 2019, it ruled “incomplete” maintaining simple binary categories when declaring births. And for three years, in Belgium, transgender people can quite easily have their marital status changed, as soon as they say they are convinced that “their sex at birth does not correspond to their deep feelings”, these are the terms of the law.
Belgium is not the first country to take such a decision. For example in Australia or India, the existence of a third genus says “neutral” is formally recognized. Closer to home, Germany has already removed gender references from identity cards. And 3 years ago she created a genre “various”, neither male nor female, on birth certificates. Even more recently, last year the Netherlands also announced its intention to remove gender from identity documents. This will be effective in 2024. The Dutch government estimates, I quote, that “citizens must be able to shape their own identity without having to choose a binary identification”. As early as 2015, the Council of Europe (this international organization which brings together almost all European countries) had also recommended to its member states to allow intersex people not to choose a specified gender marker, male or female. , on civil status. But for the moment, very few countries have taken this decision.
The Belgian decision does not end the debate. In the Netherlands, the nationalist right is up against this decision. And on the other hand, LGBTQ associations believe that this intention is laudable but does not go far enough. They ask that the mention of gender be removed altogether from the “national register” which lists all civil status in Belgium. And anyway, it remains a stumbling block for trips abroad. For example, even the European Union, which is quite progressive on social issues, imposes the mention of sex on international documents, passports, again the little F or the little M next to the name.