After refusing years earlier to acknowledge the gender of a Romanian citizen who transitioned in another European Union (EU) country, Romanian courts ruled on Tuesday that the government must recognize the man’s identity, reported Romanian news outlet Spot.

Advocates say it’s a landmark victory for transgender Europeans.

Related

Polish gay couple wins right to have their marriage recognized in historic victory

The case concerned Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi, a transgender man with Romanian and British citizenship. He was born in Romania and 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 gender identity, citing a disparity with documents he used earlier in Romania.

“This put him in the position of having two sets of documents with two different identities,” said ACCEPT, the Romanian advocacy group that helped shepherd 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 heard his case advanced it to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to settle the interstate argument. That court said in 2024 that the effect of Romania’s refusal to recognize Mirzarafie-Ahi’s gender identity impeded his freedom of movement among member states and was, effectively, a fundamental form of discrimination.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

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 2020.)

However, Romania, one of the most illiberal members in the EU when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights — it sits at the bottom of ILGA’s EU state rankings — resisted the order, with two different government agencies refusing to recognize Mirzarafie-Ahi’s identity.

Once again, Mirzarafie-Ahi took the Romanian government to court, but this time he won in his home country, with the same Romanian courts that sent his case to the CJEU 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.”

Mirzarafie-Ahi’s case mirrors a similar one decide in March in Poland and Germany.

An administrative court in Poland found itself in a nearly identical situation, addressing the marriage of two men who had wed in Berlin years earlier. Government officials in Poland refused to recognize the marriage. That court, too, sent the interstate dispute to the CJEU, which decided in the men’s favor based on their right to freedom of movement throughout the European Union.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.