Selbstbestimmt

Germany’s government just broke up after what amounts to years of backstabbing each other. But it has passed one important new law for queer rights: The lovely named Gesetz über die Selbstbestimmung in Bezug auf den Geschlechtseintrag. Just rolls of the tongue. Peak German. Let’s shorten it to SBGG from here on.

The SBGG allows anyone to change their legal gender and given names without the need for psychological assessments or medical procedures. Rather progressive indeed. So, I did just that.

Three months ago, I sent my application to the Standesamt (civil registry office), because there’s this weird 3-month waiting period in the SBGG. We can’t make things too easy, right? Still dealing with German bureaucracy after all!

Then mid-November 2024, I had an in-person appointment with the Standesamt to declare my gender and given names, paid 30 €, and was done 15 minutes later. Could’ve been even faster if the scanner wasn’t broken. But hey, Windows and scanner drivers, I know that pain. A week later, I paid another 22.50 € to get new birth certificates which arrived today. The important paperwork is done. Next up 37.00 € for a new national ID card and that’s that. 90.00 € in total for the whole process.

I’m “certified” non-binary now, or in German legal terms I’m diverse, and my new given names are Fynn Ellie.

I opted for keeping Fynn because I do like that name, it’s short, not overly masculine, and I own this fantastic domain fynn.be. But I also wanted to highlight my non-binary-ness in my name. I landed on Ellie for my second given name (that’s a story for another day).

I don’t have any preference which given name you use, could be just one of them or both. Fynn, Ellie, or Fynn Ellie are all fine.

A second given name also gives me the opportunity to “phase out” my surname Becker for day-to-day use while still having a unique name. This is really exciting because I seriously dislike my surname and now I can slowly get rid of it.