The change of the gender marker implies a range of problems – from the absence of special statutory provisions and procedures for making documents compliant to the violation of rights of transgender citizens.

Currently, trans* people in Kyrgyzstan continue to be denied the change of their gender marker in civil registry offices.

This is related to the fact that the law prohibiting the change of the gender marker for transgender Kyrgyzstanis was adopted in 2020.

The previous legislation of 2015 allowed this change.

The change of documents for transgender people is one of the main levels of social adaptation that allows them to get access to social and economic benefits, work and education.

However, violation of rights of transgender people arises not only from the new restricting law of the Kyrgyz Republic “On acts of civil status”, but also from the absence of the procedure of personal identification number (PIN) change, according to “KyrgyzIndigo” human rights organisations.

In 2018, a trans* man changed his gender marker from female to male in the national identity card, when the previous law was valid. And when in 2022 he submitted documents to apply for the foreign passport, he received it with his old marker, i.e. his sex was indicated as “female.”

This collision happened because the database automatically assigned his “previous” gender to him because of the “female” PIN available in it. It is not possible to change this PIN code so far.

PIN is a 14-digit code, where the first digit stands for gender assigned at birth (1 for female, 2 for male). All PIN codes are stored in the State electronic database, which is used for the issuance of passports and other documents.

These codes are assigned to citizens by Civil Registry Offices once and remain unchanged for life.

Nadira Masyumova, consultant of the Coalition for Equality of the Kyrgyz Republic, said about other negative consequences for the rights of trans*people, who have changed their gender marker, but still have the same personal number.

“These citizens cannot open bank accounts because when they complete a special electronic form in the general database, the PIN code assigned to them identify them as a person of another gender,” she said.

Another violation of rights of the trans*man was reported when he was issued a Covid-19 vaccination certificate with the wrong gender marker.

Another case happened to a trans*woman, who was in fact denied by the state in the change of the gender marker, although it was performed legally previously. In 2019, she changer the gender marker to female, but lost her passport. In 2021, she applied to the public service centre, which delivers documents, and they told her “the passport lost could be recovered only with the female gender.”

Commenting on the situation, Nadira Masyumova indicated the unwillingness of the state to take into account the needs and rights of trans*people, the existing bureaucracy and high level of transphobia in the society. According to the human rights defender, Kyrgyzstan has no potential for adopting the law that facilitates the process of document change for trans*people in Kyrgyzstan so far.

“There are too many difficulties here,” she said.