The Scottish Parliament has passed a bill to make it easier for people to change their legally recognised gender.
Key points:
- In Scotland people can apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate after three months
- A similar bill has passed the lower house in Spain
- Some critics say the bills will allow predators to take advantage of women's spaces
The approval makes Scotland the first part of the UK to endorse allowing people to declare their gender on documents without the need for medical certification.
The bill was introduced by the Scottish National Party-led government and allows people to transition by self-declaration, removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
The new rules require anyone applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate to have lived full-time in their declared identity for three months — six months if they are ages 16 to 17 — as opposed to the previous period of two years. The bill lowered the minimum eligibility age from 18 to 16.
The revised law also establishes a three-month "reflection period", during which applicants can change their minds. The Scottish government is yet to decide when in 2023 the new process will take effect.
The government had argued the updates would improve the lives of transgender people by allowing them to get official documents that correspond with their gender identities.
Opponents, including Harry Potter author JK Rowling, claimed the simplified procedure could give predatory men access to spaces intended for women, such as shelters for domestic abuse survivors.
Attention will now turn to how the British government reacts. UK Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch has voiced concerns about legal divergences between Scotland and the other constituent parts of the UK.
On the same day Spain's lower house of parliament passed a law allowing people older than 16 to change their legally registered gender without any medical supervision.
Under the Spanish law, drawn up by the centre-left coalition government, minors aged 12 and 13 will need a judge's authorisation to make the change, while those between 14 and 16 will have to be accompanied by their parents or legal guardians.
Up to now, Spanish transgender people needed a diagnosis by several doctors of gender dysphoria — the psychological condition of not feeling a match between one's biological sex and gender identity.
In some cases, they also needed proof they had been living for two years as the gender they identified with, or records showing they had taken hormones.
Transgender rights groups say the law represents a "before and after" in LGBT rights. But some activists regard gender self-determination as a threat blurring the concept of biological sex.
While the voting session was taking place, dozens of transgender rights activists gathered in front of the parliament building listening to the debate on their mobile phones, while others attended the gallery.