Poland rejects inclusion of third gender in new EU identity cards

The Polish government will not include the possibility of a third gender – separate from male and female – when it implements new harmonised European Union identity cards. It says it does not want to be part of an “ideological revolution”, but some lawyers believe this could breach EU law and an opposition MP has promised legal action.

A regulation that comes into force on 1 August this year will replace and harmonise the various identity cards that currently exist in countries across the EU and European Economic Area (EEA).

The regulation states that countries “should be able to decide whether to include a person’s gender” on the document. However, if they do so, the letters “‘F’, ‘M’ or ‘X’ or the corresponding single initial used in the language or languages of that Member State should be used, as appropriate”.

Currently, Polish identity cards include the holder’s gender, designated with either “K” (for kobieta, meaning woman) or “M” (for mężczyzna, meaning man).

Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, a Polish daily focusing on economic and legal affairs, reports that lawyers it has spoken to say the new regulation would require Poland to also offer the third “X” option for those who identify as neither male nor female. Not doing so could be a breach of EU law.

However, Polish deputy interior minister Paweł Szefernaker told the newspaper that the government has no intention of introducing a third gender in the documents.

“The purpose of the EU regulation is to improve the security of identity cards and regulate technical issues, not an ideological revolution,” said Szefernaker. Poland’s conservative government has in recent years led a campaign against what it calls “LGBT ideology” or “gender ideology”.

“There are [only] women and men in the Polish legal system,” continued the deputy minister. “Therefore, the cards will include these two genders. The EU cannot order us to introduce something that violates the Polish legal order.”

Szefernaker also argued that the section referring to a third gender is the explanatory memorandum of the regulation, which is a “non-normative” part of it, and therefore not binding.

In response, an opposition MP, Aleksandra Gajewska of the centrist Civic Platform (PO), told Dziennik Gazeta Prawna that “if the government does not allow entering the letter ‘X’ in the ID card, but only ‘K’ and ‘M’, we will take legal steps to change this”.

Gajewska recently complained to the head of the state statistical office (GUS) that the new national census only allows a choice between male and female genders. Poland’s commissioner for human and rights, Adam Bodnar, has also said that the census discriminates against some LGBT people.

Poland’s ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party has sought to defend the idea of sex as a biologically determined and binary trait as opposed to the variegated social construct of gender.

“Christian civilisation…is under attack today, but it can be defended…in Poland,” declared PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński earlier this month. “As long as we are in power, nobody will impose anything on us – those who want to live in a normal world, where a woman is a woman and a man is a man.”

The campaign against the supposed threat of “LGBT ideology” has included the passing of resolutions by a number of PiS-controlled local authorities declaring themselves opposed to such ideas.

But it has also had an impact at the EU level, where Poland – along with the fellow right-wing populist Hungarian government – has sought to oppose use of the word “gender” in official documents.

In November, the two countries voiced opposition to an EU plan to “promote gender equality and women’s empowerment” because it included the term “gender”. Poland’s deputy foreign minister suggested it should say “equality between women and men” instead, reported Politico Europe.

The previous month, Poland opposed a common EU position on artificial intelligence because it mentioned “gender equality”. The country’s ambassador to the EU said that “the meaning of ‘gender’ is unclear” and “may cause semantic problems”.

Main image credit: gov.pl

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.