In a landmark case, the top European Union court has ruled that all member states must recognise gender changes made in other countries within the bloc.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ), which serves as the supreme court of the European Union in matters of EU law, said this week that Romania had violated EU law by refusing to accept as valid a gender transition certificate obtained by Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi in Britain.
The case was spurred after Mirzarafie-Ahi had requested a new birth certificate in Romania, however, the local court demanded that Mirzarafie-Ahi go through a new gender recognition process in Romania rather than accepting the documents from Britain, The Telegraph reports.
Because the dual British-Romanian citizen had received the legal sex change — from female to male — prior to the UK officially leaving the EU, the Luxembourg-based court found Bucharest must accept the document.
The ruling set precedence across the EU, meaning that if a person legally changes their sex or name in any of the 27 member states, that document should be treated as legally binding in all other countries within the bloc.
In its ruling, the ECJ said: “Legislation of a Member State that refuses to recognise and enter in the birth certificate of a national a change of first name and identity lawfully acquired in another Member State, in this case the United Kingdom, is contrary to EU law.
“This also applies where the request for recognition of that change was made after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.”
“The refusal of a Member State to recognise a change of gender identity lawfully acquired in another Member State hinders the exercise of the right to free movement and residence.”
The decision could spark a new round of legal battles, as the ruling effectively undercuts national legislation banning people from legally changing their gender, as is the case in EU states such as Hungary.
Rodrigo Ballester, of the Budapest-based Mathias Corvinus Collegium think tank said of the ruling: “Utterly shocking and very banal at the same time. Once again, the European Court of Justice tramples over basic legal principles for ideological purposes and erodes member states’ competences through ludicrous reasonings.
“Its ultimate goal is not to enforce the law, but to force further integration. Not to mention that it ignores Brexit as if it had never happened. It is no longer judicial activism, it has become ideological crusading.”
Hungary has long been at odds with Brussels over LGBT issues, with Eurocrats financially punishing the conservative government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán over a 2021 law which banned the showing of LGBT content to children in media, including movies, television, books, and advertising.
The law, which also outlawed teaching LGBT topics in school, outraged globalists in Brussels, who froze EU funds from being delivered to Hungary, in an attempt to pressure Orbán into backtracking on the law. The Hungarian PM has previously accused the EU of acting like “colonialists” who want to “dictate” how Hungarians live.