As a result, the woman has been able to go by the name of ‘Emanuela’ since July 6 after a 20-year legal battle.
Until now in Italy, in order to be able to change one’s gender identity at the registry office, one must have undergone a planned intervention or hormone therapy.
It is the first ruling of its kind in Italy.
Italian law does not allow parents to give male children female names and vice versa.
The Trapani decision was made on the basis of a sentence by the supreme Court of Cassation on the case of another transgender person who wanted to take a woman’s name before having gender-affirming surgery.
In that case, the gender-affirming surgery was planned, although it had not been performed at the time of the appeal.
“Not having a female sexual organ doesn’t compromise the way I perceive myself, my looks don’t obscure my female identity,” Emanuela said in an interview with the local edition of La Repubblica.
“When the doctors explained the consequences to me, given the highly invasive nature of the treatment, I chose not to do it and to live in harmony with my body,” she explained.
“I hope my experience can be of help to those who are in my same condition.
“We transgenders are seen as aliens, when it would be enough to know us to understand that we are people like everyone else.”
ANSA
