(Newswire.net— November 9, 2018) — A man from Netherlands began a court battle because he wants to change his age to go to work and achieve better success with women at Tinder, a popular online dating site.
Sixty-nine-year-old Emile Ratelbend believes that if transgender people can change their sex, he should also have the right to change his date of birth, writes the British Telegraph.
Ratelbend would like to be officially 49 years old, as doctors told him that he had the body of a 45-year-old, for which he had filed a request to have his date of birth changed to March 11, 1969, although he was born March 11, 1949.
“With this free[dom] of choice, choice of name, freeness of gender, I want to have my own age. I want to control myself,” says Self-styled Dutch positivity guru Emile Ratelband.
According to Marjolein van den Brink, who specializes in human rights and gender issues at Utrecht University’s law school, age discrimination is a fact but it is an entirely different issue to gender discrimination.
“It’s quite clear that elderly people have a much smaller chance of getting a job than younger people,” she said. “But that’s just one element and it’s only something that happens to you once you reach the age of 40, 45, 50, depending a bit on your job.”
Local authorities refused to change Ratelbeld’s date of birth in official documents, and his fight is yet to come because the case went to court in the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands.
“With 69 I’m restricted, with 45 I can buy a house, drive a different car, I can work.” When I say that I am 69 years old at Tinder, women stop responding to me,” Ratelbeld told the Telegraph arguing that with 49 he would have more success.
This case has caused controversy in his country, but Ratelbend does not care about the negative comments. He claims to be discriminated against based on age and that companies refuse to hire someone at his age.
Ratelband claims the Dutch government could benefit if it were to accept his age demand because he would forfeit his monthly pension of around 1,200 euros ($1,370).
Ratelband denies that the age request is a publicity stunt. “Now I’m an old man. I have to save my money to give to my kids so that they can live,” said Ratelband, a father of seven. “But If I have that age again, I have hope again. I’m new again. The whole future is there for me again.”
The court in the central city of Arnhem is expected to issue a ruling in about four weeks.