A genderless family law for gender-fluid families? Parentage rules and the right to gender identity

Parenthood has traditionally been a matter of attaching a child to both a mother and a father. Cultural perceptions of an individual’s gender have long shaped the meaning of “mother” and “father”. Over recent decades, several European jurisdictions have recognized gender identity as a fundamental right and implemented reforms to protect gender mobility. Recent laws have linked legal gender recognition to self-determination, eliminating medical requirements that prevented post-transition reproduction. Some countries have even abandoned the so-called binary system, introducing a “third gender”. This study provides a comparative overview of the current European gender mobility models and tackles how legal change affects parent-child establishment. It also highlights how biology still shapes the legal understanding of parenthood, making parentage laws far from being “genderless” or “fluid”. Finally, it calls for a socio-legal reflection on transgender and gender-fluid parentage, addressing the topic under the prism of children’s fundamental rights to personal identity.