Transgender Recognition A Step Closer - Netherlands

[MadelineB]

Transgender Recognition A Step Closer (translated)
Posted 08.25.12
Staff, GaySite.NL

Original story: http://www.gaysite.nl/nieuws/1234/Erkenning_transgenders_stap_dichterbij.html
Google translate: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gaysite.nl%2Fnieuws%2F1234%2FErkenning_transgenders_stap_dichterbij.html&act=url

Friday the government announced a House bill that will make it easier for transgender people to change their legal gender designation. If parliament agrees to the proposal by Minister of Justice and Security Teeven, transgender people will no longer be required to undergo sterilization and medical sex reassignment treatments in order to officially change their gender. They will also no longer need to go to court; the change will be registered by an official of the civil registry.

Netherlands Transgender Network (TNN) and COC Netherlands called this a major step forward. Said Thomas Wormgoor, board member of TNN: "The current law leads to degrading situations, such as women being taken out of line at the airport and forced to remove their wigs, or men in a crowded waiting room being addressed as 'Mrs.' Transgender people will no longer have to live with incorrect papers that legitimize the circumstances that prevail today."

In the terms of the proposed amendment, the applicant's declared gender identity takes center stage, but it will also be required for an expert to confirm that the identity is of a lasting nature. TNN and COC Netherlands find this to be a contradiction.
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translation by MadelineB, with help of GoogleTranslate