France: New Law Allows Transgender to Legally Change Gender Without Going Through Sterilization

The French legislative body finally passed a petition on Thursday allowing transgender people to legally change gender without enduring sterilization. The rights activists rejoiced in victory as the long-awaited legislation was finally approved.

The decision came out after several European nations supported to improve the rights of transgender people. They urged other nations to remove sterilization as a legal requirement. In order to legally recognize the desired gender, transgender people need to undergo a medical procedure of sterilization. The United Nations strongly condemned the procedure as a violation of human rights.

Denmark, Malta, and Ireland started the reform in 2014 where they made changes in their policies. These nations implied a policy which only needs informing authorities of the desired gender without medical intervention.

For two years, the ILGA-Europe network of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups campaigned for the legislation of the French law. The group is based in Brussels, Germany. Sophie Aujean, spokeswoman of ILGA said: “These are years of sparring that finally come to fruition”. She then added in a phone interview with Thomson Reuters Foundation, “There is no other population in the world that is asked to be sterilized apart from transgender.”

French transgenders still require court approval

However, the new legislation is not as liberal with other nations like Denmark, Malta, and Ireland. The French law still requires transgender people the need to go to court for them to change their desired gender.

According to Delphine Ravisé-Giard, a spokeswoman for the National Transgender Association or ANT, “France has sometimes done revolutions, but this is not a revolutionary law”.

France disregards any statistical data of the transgender people. Similarly, France does not hold any official record in the numbers of transgender people. Although activists claim there are tens of thousands living in the European country.

In a European Union report published in December of 2014, transgender people tend to be gay and usually prone to be attacked, threatened or insulted.

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