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Sweden has adopted the reform of the Legal Gender Recognitio
I received this news this morning and do so hope Australian politicians soon learn more about human rights for all as Australia is getting left behind.
I have copied and pasted the letter I received and have only removed her contact details.
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Sweden has adopted the reform of the Legal Gender Recognition Act in the Riksdag on May 22 2013, and Swedish residents no longer need to undergo any medical interventions to change their gender marker. With the change full legal and human right in the new gender follow automatically.
As of the 1st of July 2013 no medical requirements that the applicant need to fulfil remain in the Swedish law (SFS 1972:119).
The requirements are to be above the age of 18, a Swedish resident, and not in a registered partnership (as partnerships no longer exist as an effect of the law on gender neutral marriage and applicant need to formally convert an existing partnership into a marriage).
The applicant must fulfil the following criteria
1. since a long time feel that he or she belongs to the opposite sex
2. since a time live in accordance with this gender identity
3. must be expected to live in this gender identity in the futureThe definition of long time has replaced the old requirement which was since early youth in criteria No. 1 and a time has replace considerable time and is typically defined as two (2) years of RLE (Real Life Experience) and the third criteria is as we all know rather difficult to define.
So according to the law no diagnosis is needed, however the Forensic Legal Council of the National Board of Health and Welfare who is the decision making authority in cases such as this mostly require a diagnosis, so far it seems that F64.0 Transsexualism but also F64.9 Gender Identity Disorder Unspecified have worked. Most persons undergoing evaluation at the six different Gender Teams need about a year of evaluation before the diagnosis is made and the patient referred for hormone therapy to an Endocrinologist. Some manage to get this quite some time earlier and if they have transitioned two years bore applying for a change of legal gender marker that will be given a new legal gender with all the rights that follow such a status.
So it comes as no surprise that the queues are growing rapidly and as I heard recently they are working double ships at the Forensic Legal Council to cope.
What do remain is that you need to apply for a permission if you intend or want to undergo GRS (Genital Reconstruction Surgery) from the Forensic Legal Council. This only apply in the case the surgery is performed in Sweden, not if you go abroad.
This decision has along with the decision of the Administrative Court of Appeals verdict on January 10th 2013 has given Sweden’s Trans* and Gender Variant people a legislation that in many way is in accordance with important human right’s documents, such as the Yogyakarta Principles, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Thomas Hammarberg’s Issue Paper “Human Rights and Gender Identity (2009)” as well as the WPATH Position Paper published in June 2010.
The Administrative Court of Appeals stated in their verdict that came into effect on January 10th 2013 that the requirement of being sterile in order to change legal gender marker is in violation of the European Declaration of Human Rights article 8 and 14 (enacted as national legislation in Sweden) as well as Sweden Constitutional Body of Laws, in this case Regeringsformen Chapter 2, § 6 where the State must protect it’s citizens against unwanted bodily interventions.
Warmly,
Ms. Maria Sundin
BSc SW
Member of the Board RFSL – the Swedish Federation for LGBT Rights
WPATH Membership Committee
Global Forum for MSM and HIV – Transgender Reference Group -
2 Replies
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Not sure that I understand the term Gender Marker. The legislation also appears to me at first glance that it is aimed directly at Transexuals rather than Transgendered people as a whole. Or am I misunderstanding something in the structure of the language in this document.
It certainly seems though that life is improving for one sector of the Swedish community.
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Pamela, I also read it as being aimed at transsexuals and not transgender in general.
The way I read the Sweedish use of the term Gender Marker, is as an equivalent to the sex marker on birth certificates, but unlike the sex marker, the gender marker is based on the current gender appearance of the person.
The group, I feel, that this Sweedish legislation will most help are non-op transsexuals. That is transsexuals for whom GRS is not able to be pursued.Jenifur Charne
