By Sarah Lafen

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France — On Thursday, France passed legislation allowing transgender people to change their legal gender status without undergoing the process of sterilization.  The previous law required that the person wishing to legally change their gender provide proof that they had been surgically and irreversibly sterilized.  According to the group Transgender Europe, sterilization was historically necessary to prove that transgender people were serious about changing genders.  The UN has strongly condemned involuntary sterilization as a human rights violation.

Gay and transgender people in France have pressured the French government for years to change the law (Photo Courtesy of BBC)
Gay and transgender people in France have pressured the French government for years to change the law (Photo Courtesy of BBC)

Under the new law, transgender people in France will no longer have to provide proof of medical treatment when they are in the process of officially changing their gender.  The law will also allow emancipated minors to officially change their genders as well.

France is now one of a number of European countries to abolish the sterilization process for transgender people.  The activist group ILGA-Europe called the change “clear progress” that “another European country has dispensed with the shameful practice of sterilization.”  Sophie Aujean, a spokeswoman from ILGA-Europe, stated that “These are years of sparring that finally come to fruition” and that “There is no other population in the world that is asked to be sterilized apart from transgender.”

ILGA-Europe, however, notes that it is still unfortunate that transgender people in France must have a court legally recognize their gender change.  Other European countries including Denmark, Malta, Ireland, and Norway have all adopted laws that dispense with medical or judicial requirements of gender changes, relying on the principle of “self-determination.”  People in those countries simply have to inform authorities of their gender change.  Stephanie Nicot, head of the French LGBT Federation, admonished the fact that transgender people will still have to go through the court.  She stated that “We’re not offenders, and judges have more important things to do!”

2013 studies show that approximately two-dozen European nations still require sterilization, including Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and Switzerland.  In Britain, Spain, and Germany, a psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria or transsexualism is required in order to legally change gender.

 

For more information, please see:

The Independent — France Scraps Obligatory Transgender Sterilisation Law — 18 October 2016

BBC — Transgender Rights: France Scraps Sterilisation in Status Law — 14 October 2016

Fox News — France Passes Legislation Scrapping Transgender Sterilization Law — 14 October 2016

The Verge — Transgender People no Longer Required to Undergo Sterilization in France — 14 October 2016

NBC — French Law Scraps Sterilization for Transgender People — 13 October 2016

Author: Impunity Watch Archive