A LANDMARK LAW in Denmark has made it easier for transgender people to change their legal gender.
Amnesty International have said that it should set an example to governments across the world.
The Danish parliament passed the bill yesterday.
It allows transgender people to obtain official documents reflecting their gender identity without needing to be diagnosed with a mental disorder or undergo surgeries resulting in irreversible sterilisation.
Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland Colm O’Gorman said:
This progressive and courageous step made by Danish MPs should set an example to Ireland, the rest of Europe and beyond.
“All states should ensure that transgender people can obtain legal recognition of their gender through a quick, accessible and transparent procedure in accordance with their own sense of their gender identity.”
Previously transgender people in Denmark could only change their legal gender after receiving a psychiatric diagnosis of “transsexualism” or undergoing surgeries, irreversible sterilisation and other medical treatments including hormone treatments.
Similar laws affecting transgender people still exist across the world.
In Ireland no procedures currently exist to allow people to change their gender.
Gender recognition law was debated in the Dáil for the first time just last month.
O’Gorman said that “legal gender recognition is vital to preserve the right to privacy for transgender people, but the process must preserve their right to health and not impose on them mandatory requirements that violate their human rights.”
This new Danish law, which comes into force on 1 September 2014 is the first of its kind in Europe.
Argentina is the only other country in the world where a similar model exists.
Amnesty International’s 2014 report, The State Decides Who I Am, reveals that European countries are violating the human rights of people trying to change their legal gender.
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