Most Trans Friendly Countries?

[JourneyFromConfusion]

I know I ask a lot on here, but the more I analyze American thinking, the more I realize why so many countries hate us (aside our evil imperialistic styles. No that's not sarcasm). I once read a comment on a post about European perceptions of Americans and someone commented about some people's blatant inability to discuss anything without being downright idiotic or condescending. Nonetheless, I'm here to ask: Is anyone aware of the most trans friendly countries out there? Moreso in terms of laws to protect transgender people, people open to the idea of one being transgender, etc? I know all countries have their homophobic, transphobic, racist people, but I'd like to see some other opinions. I am only fluent in English with minimal ability to speak Spanish so..that limits me. Thanks.

[missymay]

As far as I'm aware, some of the most accepting countries include; Canada, U.S., Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K.

[FTMax]

I really can't speak to laws or access to care, as I've only lived in the US and worked within these standards.

But I can speak to some interesting and perhaps telling social experiences. When I started coming out, my American friends all had questions - most of which we consider invasive and rude (Are you going to get a penis? Are you still going to date women? How can you be a man until you get all the surgeries?).

In contrast, my closest friends in Canada just accepted the fact at face value. Sure, I got some "good for you, congrats on being brave" praise, but aside from that it was basically the same as if I had said I'm gay or I'm a Christian. It kind of blew my mind at the time.

[Kreuzfidel]

Here in Australia, trans* folk are legally protected - and it's exceptionally easy (in comparison to the US) to change your paperwork and your name without having to go through any kind of court process.  There are definitely transphobic people here - but there doesn't seem to be same kind of ignorant mob mentality about it that you find elsewhere.

[Ayden]

I've never had issues with being American and trans. But, being from Alaska is very different from the lower 48. It's more like.... Alaska. We're pretty culturally similar to Canada but do our thing. I've never been asked rude questions. The Japanese are worse about it in my experience.

Canada is a decent place from what I hear. So is Australia and the UK. I know that there is one Scandinavian country that's pretty good but the name escapes me ATM. (I just woke up)

[Marcellow]

Well I'd say Europe, North America and Australia. Nowhere in South America unfortunately.

[invisiblemonsters]

Canada is good. transgender people are protected by law and the government (depending on the province) even pays for certain surgeries. my top surgery is covered by my province but there are certain places you have to go through to get it funded by the government. other places are what other people have said like UK, Australia, etc.

[antonia]

Sweden is widely considered the best place in the world to be trans, living in Canada (Toronto) I can say that both Toronto and Ottawa are very accepting, I've heard good things about Vancouver and Montreal but the more rural areas might not be as accepting though in general Canadians are pretty good

[Ms Grace]

Australia has pretty good protection, services and treatment systems. Helps if you live in a major metro area though. Don't think I'd want to be trans in a rural area.

[aleon515]

Rudeness may be more of a general thing. As I believe people in the US feel that they are entitled to a certain degree of rudeness.

--Jay

[Tossu-sama]

It really depends on where you live in Finland. In general, the more north you go, the more narrow-minded and conservative the people gets. But that's still pretty huge generalisation, big cities are usually the best bets.
At least we have pretty damn good medical aspects for trans people, considering it's kinda-sorta mostly free of charge (gotta pay only the possible travel expenses and for surgeries the days spend in the hospital but nothing for the actual operation, and of course the hormones come from your own pocket but you can still get the price down thanks to SII).

But there's this lovely thing in the law here that states that in order to get your social security number changed (which will cause your gender marker change), you gotta be sterile. This is considered to be done with a one year of HRT but it still tramples on human rights and apparently Amnesty has been all over that lately, including several Finns.

[Dalex]

Well, I thought I would comment in here about how things work here in Iceland.

If I remember correctly Iceland placed in 8th place this year with equal human rights and we do have a law that nothing can discriminate against anyone due to their gender identity. We can get a name change and such about 18 months after after meeting the Gender team here in Iceland and unlike a few country's in Europe we don't need to be sterile.

We pay for the hormones pretty much out of our own pocket, though other expenses are mostly covered when it comes to actual operations and what we do pay is minimum and we don't have to pay for it right away.

The down side really is the fact we have a team of doctors, therapist and such have too much power to say no to someone who is wanting to transition. We tend to call them gate keepers.

But, I think over all, there are not a lot of trans phobic crimes done here, and Iceland is actually pretty LGBTIQ friendly and has been getting more and more so in the passed few years and hopefully it will continue in that direction.

[Mr.X]

The Netherlands is pretty good. You are protected by law, and when diagnosed the health care system pays for hormones and surgeries. I will also get my speach therapist covered.

I heard that there are some issues in the northern countries of Europe. Or at least Norway. I had a friend living there who was FtM and married to a man. He wanted to transition, but would be denied because that would mean he's gay. According to Norway, you will not get help if you end up being gay. So yeah, their system is very outdated. I'm not sure if Finland and Sweden also have that issue.

[adrian]

Germany is not bad, overall, but there are some legal issues that need fixing imho.

In terms of healthcare and insurance, this is a good place to be transgender. Insurance requires that you work with a therapist before you can get HRT and SRS, but if you do, insurance will cover the cost. Insurance also covers the therapy.

Legally though, we still have to jump through many hoops. To have your name changed, you need to acquire two "expert assessments". You pay for them out of your own pocket. To get your gender markers changed, another two assessments. Because obviously only another person can confirm that you're REALLY trans, based on a two to three hour conversation :facepalm:.

Then there is the so-called "transsexual law". It is very outdated. It still includes paragraphs saying that to change your gender markers you have to have had SRS, have to be sterile, and have to get a divorce in case you're married to even change your name.

Now, these paragraphs are no longer in use after a number of rulings from our highest court, but the legislation has not been amended to this point.

[AdamMLP]

The UK is good, there's legal protection, it's free to change your name (other than paying to update your passport), and after two years of changing your name and collecting proof that you're living as male/female then you can change your birth certificate and national insurance details.  It's not that big a deal though as you very rarely need a birth certificate if you've already got a passport, and they will lock your national insurance details down so that only a small handful of people in one department of that company can access the information, so you can't be outed to your employer that way.  And the big bonus is obviously that you can transition almost for free on the NHS.  It mostly just costs time, and a lot of it.  If you can't travel to the one or two GICs which have a 4-6 month wait until you get seen for the first time you could end up waiting a year or more just to have them send you a letter acknowledging your existence.  Then there's the waiting to jump through their hoops in order to get hormones and surgery.  It's not all that bad though, sometimes I think it's good to have to take your time a bit, just not too much time!  They could do with being a little more flexible for those who've been living as male for months and years already.

It's almost worth all the hoop-jumping when you've just got to pay for travel to your appointments, which varies depending on where you live (for me it comes to about £30 a time for 2 1/2 hours on the train), travel to your surgeons, and for prescriptions (£8.05 each).  If you're low income enough then you can apply to get all of those fees reimbursed to you.  We do pay for it all indirectly though with our taxes, but you'd have to pay those taxes anyway, so why not make the most of it?

On the other end of the scale, if you've got the money you can be on hormones within a month or so if you go private.  Probably not much more for top surgery either, but there's few people who have that sort of cash.

The downside is that things like binders always cost more here because they've got to be shipped overseas, and if you try and buy too many to save on shipping customs are likely to whack an import fee on it.  Same with expensive packers, and part of the reason I've never tried any reelmagik prosthetic even though I think they're amazing, I have no idea how much customs would sting me with as it's all done by percentage and they're very pricey anyway!

[missymay]

Rudeness may be more of a general thing. As I believe people in the US feel that they are entitled to a certain degree of rudeness.

--Jay

Haters, gonna hate 

[JourneyFromConfusion]

I never thought this post would get all these responses. I know the US is definitely working toward better equality laws, but I'm curious as to the mentality of people in other countries and want to live there. I wish I was bilingual to have more options. Thanks so much!

[BlueGemFox]

Theres a lot of real accepting people in Australia. There's clinics dedicated to transgender and there's lots of help available. and the laws for changing your gender marker are really quite relaxed. So far nearly all the people I have confided into have been very open (despite still saying the ever so classic"maybe youre just a tomboy") and theyre quite friendly. of course there are still nasty people with closed minds. but luckily we do have plenty of laws protecting trans

[Clhoe G]

Sweden is one of the worst.

I don't think Australia is so great because if I want to change my birth certificate I have to have srs, but I can get a passport without srs.

[Clhoe G]

Sweden was one of the first country's to legalize the mtf ftm transition but only in 2013 the requirement to be sterilized before one can legally correct one's gender was lifted, and it is no longer part of the law.

I don't think this change applys to having a birth certificate gender change tho, I think it's the same here in Australia where srs is required to do so