Yo-Ling Chenby Yo-Ling Chen
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YESTERDAY THE TAIPEI Administrative Court (THAC) ruled in favor of transgender plaintiff Lisbeth Wu’s case to change her legal gender without providing proof of sexual organ removal surgery. Despite being the first strategic litigation case that the Taiwan Alliance for Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) took on that was aimed at challenging the current Ministry of Interior executive order (內政部97年11月3日內授中戶字第0970066240號令) requiring proof of surgery for changing one’s legal gender, Wu had to wait almost four long years before receiving the THAC’s ruling yesterday.
Lisbeth Wu (third from left) at a celebratory dinner after the THAC ruling on August 26th. Photo courtesy of TAPCPR.
During Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th, 2020, TAPCPR accompanied Wu to Taipei City’s Zhongzheng District Household Registration Office, where Wu applied for a legal gender change without submitting proof of surgery. Her application was summarily rejected, after which, Wu appealed her case to the THAC.
During the second preliminary proceedings on November 16, 2021, both Wu and the Zhongzheng Household Registration Office agreed to stop the administrative appeal process and allow the THAC to exercise its authority to apply for a constitutional interpretation, which the THAC did on December 2, 2021. After almost fourteen months of waiting, the Constitutional Court decided to not move forward with Wu’s case on February 10, 2023 and sent it back to the THAC, which the Constitutional Court argued was within its power to rule against the Ministry of Interior’s compulsory surgery executive order as it had done previously in the case of Xiao E––hence there was no need for a constitutional interpretation.
It was almost a year and a half later after yet another round of preliminary hearings and oral arguments that the THAC finally made its ruling in favor of Wu’s case, meaning that Wu’s protracted court battle lasted for over 45 months.
Lisbeth Wu outside of the THAC on August 8th. Photo by author.
After Xiao E’s history victory in September of 2023 and Nemo’s victory earlier this summer, Wu is now the third successful strategic litigation plaintiff represented by TAPCPR challenging compulsory surgery. Counting the Xiao Na and L court victories earlier this year, Wu is also the fifth transgender plaintiff to Taiwan to win their administrative court battle to change legal gender without providing proof of surgery in Taiwan.
TAPCPR co-founder and executive director Victoria Hsiu-wen Hsu stated in yesterday’s press release from TAPCPR that while Wu’s victory signifies a correct affirmation of gender-related human rights, TAPCPR hopes that transgender people in Taiwan will not have to continue taking judicial action in order to change their legal genders without providing proof of surgery, and that administrative agencies should stop dragging their feet on changing the Ministry of Interior’s unconstitutional executive order.