Sex Change Macedonians Complain of Rejection

Some 20 Macedonians who want to formalize their sex changes by obtaining new IDs, face long administrative obstacles and rejection by institutions who pronounce themselves incompetent to deal with the issue.

"Macedonia continues to systemically discriminate against trans-gender persons despite the ruling of the European Court for Human Rights that countries like Macedonia, which have signed the European human rights convention, are obliged to legally acknowledge their sex change in the identification documents," says Natasha Boskova, an activist from a coalition of NGOs called "Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities."

The coalition says that five of those who want new identification documents and who are already receiving hormone therapies or have undergone sex change surgeries have been rejected by the Justice Ministry and the office in charge of birth certificates, where they have filed complaints.

Others are caught between different institutions that do not want to solve their problem, claiming that they are not competent to do so.

The coalition says a new law, or at least legal clarifications, are a must in order to overcome the legal gaps that seem to paralyze institutions and prevent these people from obtaining new IDs from the Interior Ministry.

BIRN was not able to get an official comment from any of the institutions concerned. Unofficially, a source in the justice ministry said the problem was not intentional discrimination, however.

"The problem is that these cases are rare and both the people who work in various institutions as well as those who request new IDs on these grounds may not be fully informed of the procedures and of who is in charge.

"It is more of an administrative...