Those Dutch elections were in March and it took them 6-7 months of ‘polderen’ but with results. A new Dutch government is slowly but surely releasing details of all kinds of groundbreaking policy rehauls. Let’s have a look at the new Dutch governmental policies on gender issues.

The new government will no longer unnecessarily register if a person is a man or a woman. The four parties that will form the new coalition want all branches of government to work as gender neutral as possible, as the NOS states. The measure is one of the ways in which the new coalition strengthens the rights of LGBTQ-people. The idea is also that Article 1 of the Constitution, everybody being equal and no discrimination, is supported this way.

Gender registration in practice

The municipalities, provinces and the empire are not meant to ask for the gender anymore if it is not necessary, for example, think about municipal letters about taxes and such. In some cases it is necessary, such as the passport.

D66 and the VVD have signed the Rainbow Voting Poll Agreement with several other parties (but not the two coalition partners!). This agreement is in favour of policy allowing kids with more than two (regular) parents, such as gays or a donor or mother-in-law who would like to be legally older. They also aim to alter Article 1 in a way that it will explicitly prohibit discriminating because of sexual preference or gender.

When it comes to other ‘gay rights’ issues in parliament the CDA and the Christian Union are expected to vote against, but will not force their coalition partners D66 and the VVD to do so too.

A big step for the coalition, as this was one of the principal points dividing the Liberal and Christian parties. What do you make of this new approach to gender registration by the new Dutch government?