Georgia denies entry to person with no gender marker in passport, accuses them of ‘falsifying’ ID
A German citizen holding a passport without a gender marker has been denied entry into Georgia for allegedly ‘falsifying’ their identification and failing to provide other information.
Lian von Salzen was travelling from Trabzon, Turkey, intending to cross the Turkish–Georgian land border on Sunday before continuing on to Batumi, Georgia.
While they passed through the Turkish border smoothly, they were held up at the Georgian border after handing over their passport to the border official.
‘He looked at it for a long time and then he went to his colleague and they were kind of chuckling a bit, laughing’, von Salzen told OC Media. ‘I realised then that something was wrong with the passport’.
As of 1 November 2024, German citizens have been able to more easily change official records to alter their names and genders, or to have their gender marker removed altogether. When von Salzen applied for a new passport prior to travelling, they requested this option — instead of an M or F in their passport, the sex is marked by an X.
The border official then asked von Salzen a series of questions regarding where they would be staying while in Georgia, including the full name and phone number of the person they would be staying with.
Von Salzen then was faced with a series of officials asking questions before they were eventually handed a paper which said they were being rejected entry into Georgia for the following reasons:
- The person has no travel/health insurance or sufficient funds for residing in Georgia or returning back
- The person has not provided information or provided false information about ‘his/her identity’ and purpose of travel
When the border officials asked von Salzen to sign the document, they refused as they did not fully understand what was happening due to the language barriers or agree with the reasoning provided.
‘They never asked for my health insurance or any bank account’, von Salzen said, noting that they tried to show them that they did indeed have the required insurance and funds.
‘I feel like it was maybe just an excuse’, they said.
As for the second reason listed — the falsification of identity — von Salzen believes it was due to the X marker in their passport.
However, they noted that they were never asked a question about gender, so ‘it wasn’t explicit’.
After repeating that what was listed on the document was not true, a border official came up to von Salzen and escorted them away. While von Salzen at first thought they were being taken to an interrogation room where they could sort everything out, they were instead taken back to the Turkish border.
Von Salzen now plans to appeal the decision, especially after their host back in Turkey emphasised that it could be viewed as a political decision.
‘I'm not going to Georgia anymore, but maybe if I speak up, something can be done in the future for other people’, they said.
According to lawyer Nika Simonishvili, any refusals regarding entry to Georgia must be based on specific circumstances and evidence — however, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Georgian legal system have given the border police ‘broad powers’, leading to cases of unjustified refusal and abuse of rights.
In this case, Simonishvili emphasised to OC Media, the X gender marker cannot be considered incorrect or false information, especially when it is allowed by the legislation of another country and the border police have the ability to identify the person in question.
‘Thus, the decision to ban border crossing for this reason cannot be considered legally justified by any criteria and can be viewed only in a political context, as a continuation of [the ruling Georgian Dream party’s] anti-LGBT policy’, Simonishvili said.
OC Media has reached out to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but has not received a response as of publication.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation, which sets the global standards for machine-readable passports, has allowed an X designation since the Second World War, though this was for circumstances where the sex was ‘unknown’ due to the lack of face-to-face issuance of documents.
The first person to use the X marker in order to be recognised as neither male nor female was intersex Australian Alex MacFarlane — today, seven countries in Europe, including Germany, as well as Canada, the US, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Australia, and New Zealand offer option X to passport holders.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
