Swedish Government Should Stay out of its Citizens' Underwear
by Boris Dittrich
Published in: Aftonbladet
January 10, 2012
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/10/swedish-government-should-stay-out-its-citizens-underwear (http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/10/swedish-government-should-stay-out-its-citizens-underwear)
Swedish citizens would not want their government to mess around in their underwear. You would assume all hell would break loose if the government would tell them: you won't get a new passport or other identification document unless you have become irreversibly infertile.
This is, how absurd it may seem, the reality for those Swedish citizens who are transgender.
Swedish transgender people who want to have their preferred gender recognized before the law, need to prove they are unable to procreate (Lagen om faststallelse av konstillhorighet i vissa fall (SFS 1972; 119)).
It has been this way for a long time in Sweden. However on the pro-side, it also means that someone that do not want SRS but stillwants to be recognized as female, will be recognized as such if having an Orchidectomy.
However the law demanding irrevisable infertility is being looked through as we speak.
Reminds me, by the way, of a ->-bleeped-<- for some years go, that had fought the Government about being allowed to change to a fully female name, despite being "only" a ->-bleeped-<-, as she was living fulltime in a female role.
Eventually, she actually won the issue.