The Constitutional Affairs Committee of the Assembly of the Republic approved this Wednesday a proposal that will allow people to choose a neutral name, eliminating the current requirement that names be identified with male or female names.
Only Chegi MPs on that parliamentary committee voted against a proposal to amend the Civil Registration Code to end the article requiring names not to raise any “doubts as to the sex of the registrant.”
All other parties voted in favor of the proposal, which would allow name changes to take into account self-defined gender identity and gender expression.
The text, which will still be discussed in plenary, introduces another “surgical change” to end the “inconsistency” that exists when people change their name and gender at the Institute of Registers and Notaries, but do not change the name on their children and spouses, said Socialist MP Pedro Delgado Lopez.
Currently, name changes on birth and marriage records are subject to the consent of the children and spouse respectively.
The text, approved this Wednesday by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, provides for the right to change the name in birth and marriage records without having to depend on the permission of third parties.
The proposal approved this Wednesday replaces four bills sponsored by PS, Livre, PAN and Bloco de Esquerda, but for BE “it is not a replacement text as it does not cover all the changes” they presented.
MP Joana Mortagua expressed regret that the clause of the BE proposal, which provides for the right of intersex people not to have any mention of gender on their citizenship card, was ignored.
In response, Pedro Delgado Lopez explained that the change failed not because there were any objections, but because it was not implemented in a timely manner.
According to the Socialist MP, the change required reconfiguring the entire IT system, which was “technically impractical in a short time.”
The possibility of making changes only to a citizen’s physical card was also not considered, since this would require reconfiguring the card, which is also not feasible with “the time we have,” he added.
The new text therefore only provides for changes to the Civil Code, having received the approval of all deputies, including the PSD, which, with the voice of Emilia Cerqueira, declared that they do not have a “overhaul of the initiative”, which they consider them “more fair and universal”.
Only Chega deputies voted against the new text, considering it a “step back” and choosing an “absurd path,” explained deputy Rita Matias.