Bill to Amend Gender Registration (Netherlands, 2021–2026)
The bill known as the Transgender Act (Parliamentary Paper 35825) never became law. The government submitted it to the House of Representatives in May 2021. The bill amended Book 1 of the Dutch Civil Code and concerned the recording of gender on birth certificates.
What it provided
The requirement for an expert’s declaration would have been abolished. Anyone aged sixteen or over would have been able to arrange the change directly with the civil registrar; a third or subsequent change would have required an application to the court. Children under sixteen would have been able to apply to the court for a change.
What happened
The House of Representatives debated the bill on 27 and 28 September 2022 but did not vote on it. In September 2023, it was declared controversial. The House subsequently adopted motions calling for its withdrawal. On 2 July 2025, the government announced that the Council of Ministers had decided to withdraw the bill; the withdrawal letter, dated 11 August 2025, reached the House of Representatives on 13 January 2026. The Senate never considered the bill.
Who submitted it
The bill was submitted by Minister Dekker for Legal Protection, together with Minister Van Engelshoven of Education, Culture and Science. Its full title was: Amendment of Book 1 of the Dutch Civil Code in connection with changing the conditions for amending the gender recorded on a birth certificate. The Council of State had issued an advisory opinion beforehand. In the House of Representatives, the Standing Committee for Justice and Security prepared the bill for consideration. During the proceedings, an amendment memorandum and amendments were submitted by MP Van Ginneken and MPs Omtzigt and Pouw-Verweij. The debate itself is described in the 2022 House of Representatives debate.
The motions and the withdrawal
Two motions called for the bill to be withdrawn: one submitted by MPs Van Vroonhoven and Diederik van Dijk, and a later motion by Diederik van Dijk and others, which was adopted on 8 April. The withdrawal letter was signed by State Secretary Struycken of Justice and Security. In it, he wrote that the government was responding to the repeated call from a majority in the House. The House had reaffirmed the bill’s controversial status on 19 June 2025 and removed it from that list on 25 June 2025. Another letter explaining the withdrawal followed. A foreign proposal with a similar purpose is the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which was blocked by the British government. The rules currently in force are set out in the article on the Transgender Act in the Netherlands.
Why it is included in this archive
The existing rules from 2014, including the expert’s declaration, therefore remain in force. A substantive discussion of the proposal can be found in the withdrawn self-identification bill. More information is available on the page about the legal aspects and in the overview of developments in the Netherlands.