A Dutch man who petitioned to legally change his date of birth has been told “no” by a court in the Netherlands. Dare we hope that courts everywhere will be as logical in decisions relating to transsexuals’ legal gender-change petitions?
According to the Associated Press,
[Emile] Ratelband went to court last month, arguing that he didn’t feel 69 and saying his request was consistent with other forms of personal transformation which are gaining acceptance in the Netherlands and around the world, such as the ability to change one’s name or gender.
Emile Ratelband, who said he “felt” twenty years younger than his biological age of 69, wanted the court to change his date of birth to reflect an age of 49 years. He also argued he was a victim of age discrimination.
The Transgender Parallel
Ratelband’s point – that his petition is consistent with contemporary transgender transformations – is a valid one. Transsexuals “feel” they are a different biological sex, and they feel discriminated against when others refuse to recognize and accept their presumed Gender Identity.
Women left and right, lesbian and straight, religious and agnostic, are genuinely concerned about what they consider a transgender movement designed to erase women and their hard-fought legal rights. At our Conservative Women’s Network luncheon in February last year, Mary Lou Singleton, a self-labeled radical feminist and board member of the Women’s Liberation Front, told the audience, “The cognitive dissonance is mind blowing. If we lose this battle, we [women] will have lost everything in terms of our legal protections.”
Equally concerning is the astonishing gains made by the transgender movement. A biological male, transgender professor Rachel McKinnon, was awarded first place in the 2018 Women’s 35-44 Sprint cycling final at the UCI Masters track championships. Another biological male, Angela Ponce, “beat 20 other contestants in the Miss Universe Spain gala on June 29, qualifying for the global round of the pageant” this year. Colleges in the US have jumped on the bandwagon, with 377 universities now offering Gender Studies degrees.
Several states in the U.S. already allow a person to alter the sex on his/her birth certificate without proof of Sex Reassignment Surgery (see graphic).
Netherland Court Rejects Petition
In Ratelband’s case, however, the court in the Netherlands rejected his petition.
Mr. Ratelband is at liberty to feel 20 years younger than his real age and to act accordingly,” Arnhem court said in a press statement. “But amending his date of birth would cause 20 years of records to vanish from the register of births, deaths, marriages and registered partnerships. This would have a variety of undesirable legal and societal implications.
[I]in a written ruling, the court said Dutch law assigns rights and obligations based on age “such as the right to vote and the duty to attend school. If Mr. Ratelband’s request was allowed, those age requirements would become meaningless.”
The court said it acknowledged “a trend in society for people to feel fit and healthy for longer, but did not regard that as a valid argument for amending a person’s date of birth.”
One can only hope American courts will begin to recognize the “undesirable legal and societal implications” of transgender demands as well, and apply the same logic in their decisions.
For more information, read
Transsexual ‘warn others of the reality of becoming transsexual’, Daily Mail Online, Dec 13, 2018
The Transgender Movement is Not Interested in Compromise, Federalist, Dec 12, 2018