In the UK, he was recognized “as a man, while in Romania, as a ‘woman’.”
Romanian courts have ruled that the government must recognize a Romanian man’s identity after refusing years earlier to acknowledge his gender after he transitioned in another European Union country.
Advocates say it’s a landmark victory for transgender Europeans, Romanian news outlet Spot reported
Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi is a transgender man with Romanian and British citizenship, born in Romania who moved to the United Kingdom in 2008, where he began his transition several years later.
After obtaining legal documentation in the UK in 2020, the Romanian government declined to recognize Mirzarafie-Ahi’s new gender identity, citing a disparity with earlier documents.
“This put him in the position of having two sets of documents with two different identities,” said ACCEPT, the Romanian advocacy group that helped Mirzarafie-Ahi’s case through the courts.
In the UK, he was recognized “as a man, in Romania, as a ‘woman’.”
Mirzarafie-Ahi sued, and the Romanian court that dealt with his case advanced it to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to settle the interstate argument.
In 2024, the court ruled that the effect of Romania’s refusal to recognize Mirzarafie-Ahi’s gender identity interfered with his freedom of movement among member states and constituted a fundamental form of discrimination.
The court ruled, therefore, that all EU member states are obligated to recognize the identity documents of transgender individuals who have earned legal gender recognition in another EU state. (The UK left the EU in 2021.)
Socially conservative Romania and at the bottom of ILGA’s EU state rankings, refused to comply with two different government agencies refusing to recognize Mirzarafie-Ahi’s identity.
Mirzarafie-Ahi again took the Romanian government to court, and this time won in his home country. The Romanian courts that sent his case to the CJEU are now bound by its decision.
“Today, March 31, we celebrate Trans Visibility Day, and I am happy to use this opportunity to turn to the people in my community with good news,” Mirzarafie-Ahi said in a statement after his victory.
“I have finally won in the courts of Romania! It is not only my victory, but also ours — of those who are still waiting to be seen, heard and recognized.”
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