In the Czech Republic, the rules for gender reassignment would be amended. According to a new proposal, sterilization surgery would no longer be necessary for those who wish to change their sex. The Belgians are, of course, far ahead in this matter, with them it will soon be possible to change gender and name several times, the change can be modified with a statement within the framework of a simple procedure.
Until now, those who wanted to change their biological gender in a legal sense could not do so without undergoing a surgical gender reassignment. During the surgical intervention, their genitals were removed. This prerequisite would now be abolished in the Czech Republic, reports vasarnap.hu .
"The only condition for gender reassignment in the legal sense will be a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, which is in line with the new WHO international classification of "diseases and genders", emphasized Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková, government commissioner for human rights, in the Radiozurnal program .
The bill still needs to be passed by both houses of parliament and signed by the president before it comes into effect. If these happen, the Czech Republic will also join the EU countries that have abolished the surgical conditions for legal gender reassignment, the Expats news site points out.
Nothing is enough
In Belgium, since 2018, transgender people have been able to officially change their gender and, accordingly, their first name - without having to meet certain medical conditions.
The law permits the change of the first name from the age of 12, and the change of gender from the age of 16, which requires the approval of both parents and a child psychiatrist. From the age of 18, just an affidavit is enough.
Before 2018, such a step was only possible if someone had undergone gender reassignment surgery or sterilization. The procedure itself takes about three months. The first step is to declare the intention to the local municipality, in which it must also be indicated that the person has been convinced for a long time that his birth gender does not correspond to his gender identity. Within three months, the municipality will notify the regionally competent prosecutor's office, where the application will be assessed. There is a legal remedy. In the second stage of the procedure, a statement must be made again, in which the applicant confirms his previous intention. This is important because you need to be aware of the irreversibility of the move.
The waiting list for gender-changing medical interventions is long, with an average wait of 15 months. Gender reassignment specialists work in only two hospitals, and they provide patients with everything from drug treatment to surgery and psychological support. The price of a gender reassignment surgery ranges from 1,000 to 4,000 euros, depending on the complexity of the procedure.
Based on the estimate of the so-called Gender Equality Institute, there are approximately 55,000 transgender people living in Belgium.
Roughly 3,200 are known to have changed sex. However, there are still people for whom this is not enough. According to the institute, the fact that they have to choose a gender at all is a problem for many, because they do not identify themselves as binary or genderfluid. According to the Belgian Constitutional Court, there are indeed gaps in the law and they must be filled. The government complied with this request by reforming the law, which now removes the principle of irrevocability. From now on, the switch will be able to be modified with a declaration within the framework of a simple procedure. If someone changed their mind, even more than once, Eszter Baraczka, the Brussels correspondent of the Közmédia center, reported to Hírado.
Photo: “Generation Drag” from the Discovery+ series
