On 21 October 2026, the Constitutional Court of Lithuania accepted for examination individual complaint No. 1A-55/2026. In it, a married transgender woman challenges the requirement to dissolve her marriage in order to obtain legal gender recognition. It is the first case in which the Court will assess whether the State may force a trans person to choose between their family and their identity.
LGL also points out that the same provision already restricts married trans people’s access to healthcare today.
What the Constitutional Court will examine
The Court will examine whether Article 2.27(1) of the Civil Code conflicts with the Constitution. The question is whether it may prohibit amending the sex entry in the civil status records of a person who has exercised the right to gender identity, without dissolving a lawfully concluded and existing marriage. Under this provision, only an unmarried adult has the right to medical gender reassignment.
The applicant was refused a correction of the sex entry in her birth record. The State has recognised her female identity only in part. Her first name, surname and some civil status data have been changed, but the sex marker in her personal identification code remains male for as long as the marriage is not dissolved.
The applicant states that this entry discloses her trans status to institutions and other people every time she uses her documents. She also argues that married people are placed at a disadvantage compared with unmarried people, whose marital status does not block legal recognition. Neither the applicant nor her spouse wishes to divorce, and they are raising minor children, so the regulation affects the whole family.
The decision to accept the complaint means only that it meets the formal requirements. A ruling on the merits will follow later.
The same provision already restricts access to healthcare
LGL is aware of cases in which married trans people were refused hormone therapy solely because of their marital status.
The diagnostics and treatment procedure approved by Order No. V-1307 of the Minister of Health (2022) does not require patients to be unmarried. In practice, however, doctors seem to be applying the condition in Article 2.27(1) of the Civil Code, which concerns legal gender recognition, to healthcare. As long as this interpretation is applied, every married trans person faces the same risk.
In late September 2026, LGL approached the Ministry of Health and the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson. LGL asked them to assess how the procedure is applied and to state clearly that neither marital status nor legal gender status is a criterion for receiving treatment. On 22 October, the Ombudsperson’s Office sent letter No. S-2026/1107 to LGL and the Ministry of Health. The letter is titled “On the right of transgender persons to receive healthcare services regardless of marital status and/or gender identity”.
In LGL’s view, the Ministry can solve the problem for everyone at once. It could issue a clarification or guidelines, or amend Order V-1307, which still relies on the outdated ICD-10 classification. Such a step would also help doctors, who currently work in legal uncertainty. The Constitutional Court case addresses the root cause, but the ruling will take time, and people need treatment now.
Trans people in regulated professions
In March this year, LGL approached the Ministry of the Interior about trans people’s access to statutory service and other regulated professions. The appeal was prompted by the case of a trans man who had served successfully in the Lithuanian Armed Forces as a professional soldier. A medical commission nevertheless found him unfit for police service solely because of an F64.0 diagnosis.
He received the diagnosis while already serving in the army, performed his duties without reproach and was never referred for re-examination. This shows that different services assess the same diagnosis inconsistently.
In its appeal, LGL proposed to:
- review the medical fitness criteria and end automatic disqualification based on the F64.0 diagnosis or its ICD-11 equivalent;
- move to an individual, functional assessment based on the person’s actual state of health;
- establish a clear procedure for additional, independent assessment and appeal;
- align assessment practice between the army and the police;
- hold a working meeting with partners from countries that apply individual assessment, to discuss good practice.
The World Health Organization’s ICD-11 classification no longer considers gender incongruence a mental disorder. Lithuania plans to switch to ICD-11 only in 2031. Until then, the outdated classification may continue to bar trans people from working in their profession.
The unimplemented judgment in L. v. Lithuania
In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights found in L. v. Lithuania that Lithuania had violated the Convention. Its failure was not adopting a law setting out the conditions and procedure for gender reassignment. The Civil Code still says these conditions are to be set by law, but no such law has been adopted.
Today, trans people can change their first name and surname administratively. Changing the sex marker and personal identification code still requires a court decision and a psychiatric diagnosis.
The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers supervises the execution of the judgment. In March 2025 it again called on Lithuania to establish a clear legal gender recognition procedure. In November 2026, LGL, together with TGEU and other partners, submitted new information to the Committee of Ministers on the execution of the judgment.
