A bill submitted by the Ministry of Welfare to create clearer laws regarding the rights of the transgendered has been voted into law.
As reported, the purpose of the bill is stated as “to ensure that transgendered people receive equal treatment before the law, in harmony with human rights.” It contends that the waiting period for receiving examination and corrective surgery can take years, and even then, being legally recognised as having one’s gender corrected is an often complicated and unsure process.
Morgunblaðið now reports that this bill has been voted into law by a parliamentary majority.
The law is fairly comprehensive. It defines a transgendered person as anyone who, from a young age, has felt as though they were born with the wrong physical gender and seeks to correct it. The application of the bill focuses mostly on two areas: the creation of a medical team at the national hospital to help identify the transgendered and provide corrective surgery, and greater ease with changing one’s gender in the national registry and other legal documents. It would also ease the process by which gender identification and correction done overseas is recognised in Iceland.
The bill is expected to go into effect later this month.
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