If you can change gender, why not age? – 69yo Dutchman keeps up fight to become legally younger

Dutch media personality Emile Ratelband, 69, is determined to continue fighting to be legally recognized as younger despite losing in court. The people enjoy "free will," and the governments just have to adapt, Ratelband believes.

The controversial case that garnered worldwide media attention was rejected by the court earlier this week, which ruled that the man could not legally change his age on the grounds of simply "feeling" 20 years younger. Ratelband, who is eager to continue his fight, shared his reasoning with RT.

"I was thinking – why it was possible to change your family name? How it's possible to change your first name? You can change your nationality, and even change your gender," he said. "So, I was thinking – if you can change all those things, I have my free will, I also can choose my own holiday, I can choose my own partnership, I can f*** around with women or with men. I was thinking – if I can choose all those things, I can also choose my age."

Ratelband has also brought up some sort of medical reasoning behind his desire to become 20 years younger, claiming that his doctor told him a couple years ago that he actually was in his 40s "biologically."

He has also repeatedly argued that he felt "discriminated" against due to his his age, in ways such as not scoring enough on dating apps and getting fewer work opportunities.

"We as human beings, we have to change and so the state and the government have to change also. They have to adapt and to realize that the people nowadays have the free will," Ratelband told RT.

The court was apparently not impressed with his reasoning, rejecting his appeal on grounds that it could set a dangerous precedent and ultimately jeopardize the whole system of age-based regulations.

"The main reason is that age requirements in the law give rights and duties to people, for instance the right to vote, or the duty to tend school. And if those requirements wouldn't count, if you could change your date of birth, that would become meaningless," said Ninke de Waele, judge with the Arnhem district court.

De Waele added, however, that Ratelband still has the "liberty to feel 20 years younger than his real age and to act accordingly."

The defeat in court has left Ratelband unshaken. He says that everything is actually going according to plan.

"Our strategy was actually to lose the first [case]. And then we can learn from this, and the court has given us many many reasons, so we can attack now. So, we have lost the battle, we are going to win the war," he told RT.

He now plans to take his case all the way through the Dutch legal system and up to the international human rights courts.

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