The interested party must show an opinion from a “multidisciplinary team” from Cenesex
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 19 July 2025 — On Friday the Cuban parliament approved the right to change sex “at personal request” without surgery or a court order for citizens of legal age. The deputies unanimously approved—as is customary in the Assembly—the new Civil Registry law, whose main innovation is this amendment.
Among the changes included in the legislation is that the applicant may change their gender up to two times, provided they are over 18 years of age and that the first change was made when they were a minor. If the change is requested by a minor, a court order will be required.
The reform also establishes that the changes will not be conditioned “on the prior modification of the person’s appearance or bodily function, nor on a surgical procedure for genital reassignment.”
The update to the Civil Registry places Cuba among the countries that have legislated in favor of so-called “gender self-determination” and fulfills a long-standing demand of Cuban transgender people and the LGBTI community that was not realized in 2022, when the country approved the Family Code in a referendum.
In the case of intersex newborns, parents will have the right to register them with the sex they prefer.
To register a sex change, the interested party must present a report from a “multidisciplinary team” from the National Center for Sexual Education (Cenesex) and their birth certificate. Similarly, the law establishes that sex changes made before the Civil Registry are considered restricted because they are considered “sensitive.”
In the case of intersex newborns, parents will have the right to register their child with the sex they prefer, based on their predominant physical attributes, and the child may opt to change gender in the future. If the child is still a minor, the applicant will need the consent of their parents; if not, their own consent will suffice.
Before the reform, trans people had to go through a cumbersome bureaucratic process to change their sex. In many cases, to avoid this labyrinth, people opted to change only their name, which in practice presented even more difficulties and discrimination in their daily lives.
The Cuban NGO Translúcidos, made up mostly of trans men, welcomed the changes to the law but considered that it would have been better to replace “sex” with “gender” in the final document.
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