The outgoing cabinet is definitively introducing the proposal for an adjustment to the Transgender Act. Outgoing State Secretary Teun Struycken (Legal Protection, NSC) registers on Wednesday afternoon A letter to the Lower House That he is expected to withdraw the law shortly after the summer break. He says that he will follow the wish of the Lower House; In April last year, a majority voted for a motion by NSC and SGP that the cabinet called for this.
The new transgender law has a long history. Three years ago, VVD minister Sander Dekker then submitted the bill, with a majority for the adjustment at the time. He made it easier to officially change the gender. A declaration of an expert for a gender change on the birth certificate would no longer be necessary by law. Such a statement, from a doctor or psychologist, has been assessed as unnecessary in the Trans Community.
Human rights organizations also expressed themselves against the statement, and for the amendment to the law. The law also made it possible for Trans persons under the age of sixteen to change their sex registration if a judge approves it.
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Conservative criticism
In the meantime, more and more conservative voices are steering in the public debate after Dekkers’ proposed adjustment. For example, they found that the law means that men can change gender too easily and therefore get too easy access to public women’s spaces, such as changing rooms. However, those claims have never been proven.
The criticism nevertheless reached the Chamber, where the support had since crumbled. VVD and CDA, first proponents, doubt about the removal of an expert statement. Other conservative parties such as NSC and SGP want the bill to go completely off the table.
In April last year, a tight majority (73 against and 70 against) voted for the motion to stop the adjustment to the Transgender Act. The then Minister Franc Weerwind (D66) responded that he did not want to carry out the motion due to ‘procedural objections’. Weerwind left it to a new cabinet at the time to respond to the motion.