About a year and a half since Iceland passed it’s Gender Determination Law, which allowed individuals to register their gender as non-binary, the national register has finally updated its systems and made that option available.
Prior to the 2019 legislation, there were only two gender options available, male or female.
The new law means that trans and non-binary individuals in Iceland no longer have to go through invasive and lengthy medical processes to change their legally recognises gender.
Due to the change in laws, they now have access to trans-specific healthcare and the ability to change their gender identity as the national registry using the new third gender option of “x”.
The changes were estimated to take 18 months, as the national registry had to update all of their systems. But as of this week, Icelandic individuals can now officially update public documents such as passports using “x” as a gender option.
It was reported that 12 individuals have sought to change their gender through the national registry to non-binary.
The changes are celebrated amongst many, especially Daníel E. Arnarsson the managing director of the National Queer Registration who campaigned for the changes back in 2019.
They go onto say “We welcome this long-necessary change,” Daníel said. “We wish all nonbinary people heartfelt congratulations in being able to register their gender as they themselves desire.”
