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BERLIN, July 23 (Reuters)–Germany's constitutional court ruled on Wednesday that a man seeking legal recognition as a woman will be allowed to stay married to his wife in a landmark decision that further strengthens the rights of transsexuals.
The Karlsruhe-based court ruled unconstitutional a requirement that married transsexuals first get divorced before their new gender could be legally recognised. The court said that law violated a person's basic rights.
The court ruled in favour of a man who was born in 1929 who has three adult children and had been married for 56 years. He underwent a sex-change operation in 2002 and wanted to be legally recognised as a woman but could not until a divorce took place.
The wife of the transsexual also did not want the marriage to be dissolved, the court heard. The court ruled Germany's transsexual law must be changed by August 2009. It has made other rulings in favour of transsexuals in recent years.
There are about 1,000 transsexuals in Germany.
