{"chart":{"title":"Gender marker can be legally changed","subtitle":"Whether people can legally change their gender marker on official identity documents, and what the change requires.","citation":"Velasco (2026)","originalChartUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gender-marker-can-be-legally-changed","selection":["Russia","Estonia","Liberia","Mexico"]},"columns":{"Legal change of gender marker":{"titleShort":"Legal change of gender marker","titleLong":"Legal change of gender marker","descriptionShort":"Whether a legal process exists to change the gender marker on official identity documents, and what the process requires — self-declaration, a court order, medical or psychological diagnosis, surgery, or surgery plus sterilization.","descriptionKey":"- This data comes from the LGBTI National Policy Dataset, compiled by Kristopher Velasco at Princeton University. It tracks the adoption, scope, and enforcement of 27 LGBTI-related policies across 195 countries, with annual data starting in 1991.\n- The indicator is coded as follows: **_Self-declaration is enough_** (legal change of the gender marker is possible based on self-declaration), **_Court order required_** (legal change requires a judicial procedure, with no medical or surgical condition), **_Diagnosis required_** (legal change requires a medical or psychological diagnosis), **_Surgery required_** (legal change requires gender-affirming surgery), **_Surgery and sterilization required_** (legal change requires both gender-affirming surgery and sterilization), **_Legally possible, requirement unknown_** (legal change is in effect but the procedural requirement is not recorded in the source), **_Varies by region_** (rules differ between subnational jurisdictions, or legal change is only partially in effect) and **_Not legally possible_** (no legal procedure exists to change the gender marker on official identity documents).\n- The dataset counts policies established by binding legal instruments — statutes, constitutional provisions, decrees and regulations with the force of law, and binding court rulings. Where no law governs a policy, a written rule that does can count too, such as a health-authority guideline, a blood service's donor questionnaire or a religious ruling. Bills, ministerial statements and non-binding declarations are not counted.","descriptionProcessing":"From the original dataset, we combined the gender-marker-change proportion (the legal direction) with the recorded legal-pathway requirement to produce a single categorical indicator. When legal change of the gender marker is fully in effect, we classify countries by their procedural requirement (\"Self-declaration is enough\", \"Court order required\", \"Diagnosis required\", \"Surgery required\", \"Surgery and sterilization required\", or \"Legally possible, requirement unknown\" when the requirement is not recorded). Otherwise the country is classified as \"Varies by region\" (legal change is only partially in effect across subnational jurisdictions) or \"Not legally possible\" (no legal procedure exists).","shortUnit":"","unit":"","timespan":"1991-2025","type":"Ordinal","owidVariableId":1354598,"shortName":"gender_marker_change","lastUpdated":"2026-07-15","nextUpdate":"2027-07-15","citationShort":"Velasco (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data","citationLong":"Velasco (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Legal change of gender marker – Velasco” [dataset]. Velasco, “LGBTI National Policy Dataset 3.0” [original data].","fullMetadata":"https://api.ourworldindata.org/v1/indicators/1354598.metadata.json"}},"dateDownloaded":"2026-10-31"}