Italy’s constitutional court has refused to legally recognize a ‘non-binary’ sexual identity—on the grounds that it would disrupt Italy’s entire social and legal system.
The ruling came down last week.
It stated that Italian law
establishes the principle of correspondence between name and sex and that, therefore, only a legislative intervention could overcome or change this rule. Its clarification is based on the fact that the binary nature of human sexuality of man and woman characterizes the varied and most disparate realms of social life, governed by the legal system, such as family law, labor law, sport, and the civil state and that, therefore, the legal recognition of an alleged third non-binary gender would disrupt the entire Italian legal and social system in such a way as to be incompatible with the faculties and attributions of the Constitutional Court or of any judge.
At the same time, the court ruled that judicial authorization was not needed before having so-called sex reassignment surgeries—and that legal gender recognition can be based on hormonal treatment and psychological support, without the need for surgery.
Nevertheless, the core aspect of the ruling—the incompatibility of legally recognizing a third gender with Italy’s social and legal structure—should be welcomed.
