The Costa Rica Supreme Electoral Court (TSE in Spanish) announced this Monday that citizens will now be able to change their name according to their gender identity and it will be shown this way in their ID cards.

The decision was made in session number 49-2018 in which the members of the TSE analyzed the advisory opinions given by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding gay marriage and the rights of the transgender population. The resolution will go into effect as soon as the change made today and the legislation is published in the official newspaper La Gaceta.

Until now in Costa Rica when a person identifies with a gender different to the one registered at birth, the Civil Registry allows the individual to include the second name in the space labeled A.K.A. With this change each person can choose the name they want to show in their ID and the gender will not be included anymore in the ID with the purpose of eliminating stigmatization.

The advisory opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Right was given in response to a consultation made by the Costa Rican government regarding same- sex-couples and whether they should be able to legally marry and therefore acquire property rights and other benefits different sex couples enjoy; the second inquiry was with regards to the transgender population having the right to change their name and gender in their official documents.

The Court concluded that same-sex couples should be recognized and guaranteed “all the rights that are derived from a family bond between people of the same sex” and that the governments must guarantee access “to all existing forms of domestic legal systems, including the right to marriage, in order to ensure the protection of all the rights of families formed by same-sex couples without discrimination”, and the right of each person to be recognized according to the gender they identify with.

Regarding same sex marriage, the TSE is waiting on the ruling of the Constitutional Chamber or the Legislative Assembly, since the Civil Registry only registers the unions and is not in the capacity of reforming the existing laws. Last week, Costa Rica’s Attorney General confirmed that the ruling of the Inter-American Court in regards to this topic is binding and therefore the rights of same-sex couples should be recognized and guaranteed by the Costa Rican judiciary system.