Offbeat | Dutchman, 69, seeks legal age change to 49, invokes discrimination

Emile Ratelband

Self-styled positivity guru Emile Ratelband thinks age is just a number. And his is a number the Dutchman wants changed.

The 69-year-old TV personality has asked a court in the Netherlands to approve his request for a new birthday that officially would make him 49.

Ratelband says his legal appeal is consistent with other forms of personal transformation that are gaining acceptance and government recognition in the Netherlands and around the world.

“With this free(dom) of choice, choice of name, freeness of gender, I want to have my own age. I want to control myself,” he said last week.

Ratelband says he wants to avoid age discrimination in society — especially on dating websites.

“So when I ask for a mortgage, for example, they say it’s impossible,” he told The Associated Press. “If I go on Tinder, then I get women from 68, 69 when women are there.”

How about just being economical with the truth about his age?

“I don’t want to lie,” he said. “I want to be myself, so don’t force me to lie.”

Marjolein van den Brink, who specializes in human rights and gender issues at Utrecht University’s law school, said age discrimination is a problem but is different than the issues involved in reassigning gender.

“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. “Whereas gender is something that follows you from birth to grave.”