The government and the Opposition will be proposing conflicting changes to the Gender Identity Act to correct the same error in the law.

The glitch has left adopted transgender people unable to legally change their gender.

The Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act, introduced last month, allows transgender people to change their birth certificates and identification documents through a simple notarial deed without having to undergo gender reassignment surgery or receiving a medical diagnosis.

However, Attard PN councillor Alex Mangion told Times of Malta on Wednesday he was unable to alter his documents because, having been adopted from Romania as a child, he did not have a birth certificate registered in Malta.

Shadow citizen rights minister Jason Azzopardi said yesterday: “The law as it stands does not apply to adopted people, so an ambiguous situation has been created where a person adopted and brought to Malta cannot have the sex change recognised.”

The Opposition proposed an amendment that would broaden the definition of “birth certificate” in the law to include adoption decrees listed in the Adopted Persons Register.

However, in a statement, the government said that the PN’s proposed amendment was “rushed” and did not take into account differences in procedure for the amendment of birth certificates and adoption decrees, which would cause “more problems than solutions” for adopted people.

The government said it was already in consultation with the Attorney General to propose changes that corrected the situation with “legal certainty” and allow all Maltese nationals to change their documents.