'Surgery unnecessary to register gender'

(ANSA) - Rome, July 20 - Gender reassignment surgery is not necessary to have a sex change registered in Italy, the high Court of Cassation ruled Monday. The high court upheld an appeal from a transgender person who, after having had their surgery authorised, then changed their mind but still wanted the public registry office to record the change. "The desire to make body and psyche coincide is the result of a hard-won and personal processing of one's gender identity...including in the absence of surgical alteration," the court wrote in its opinion.
    This was a "historic" ruling, according to the Lenford Network of lawyers for LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Intersexual (LGBTI) rights, which brought the suit on the appellant's behalf.
    The appellant is a man who has been living and is socially recognized as a woman for the past 25 years and therefore no longer feels the need for the actual surgery, the Lenford Network said.