Stockholm, Sweden – Sweden was the first country to introduce legal gender reassignment in 1972, but a proposal to lower the minimum age from 18 to 16 to be voted on by parliament Wednesday has sparked controversy.
“The process today is very long, it can take up to seven years to change your legal gender in Sweden,” Peter Sidlund Ponkala, president of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights , told AFP. Surgical procedures to transition would, like now, be allowed from the age of 18, but would no longer require the Board of Health and Welfare’s approval.
While tolerance for gender transitions has long been high in the progressive and liberal country, political parties across the board have been torn by internal divisions over the new proposal, and academics, health care professionals and commentators have come down on both sides of the issue.