LGBTI Rights In Iceland Still Lacking, Report Says

Iceland is in 16th place out of a possible 49 countries when it comes to LGBTI rights, a new report from ILGA-Europe shows. The country has much to be proud of, but is still lacking many crucial protections for the most vulnerable people in the queer community.

“An examination of Icelandic laws and policies also reveals a concerning lack of protections for LGBTI people in anti-discrimination legislation, gaps in hate crime legislation and no legislation or positive measures in the area of asylum,” the report (.pdf) states in part. “Current legislation still imposes a series of deterring conditions on trans people to access legal gender recognition, and there is no legislation to protect the bodily integrity of intersex people.”

As Grapevine pointed out last August, Icelandic legislation regarding trans and intersex folks leaves much to be desired. This includes intersex children being subjected to surgery and hormone treatment in order to conform to the gender binary. There is also no legislation at all regarding asylum seekers who identify as queer or trans.

As such, ILGA-Europe makes the following recommendations for Iceland:

“Prohibiting medical intervention on intersex minors when the intervention has no medical necessity and can be avoided or postponed until the person can provide informed consent.

“Updating the existing legal framework for legal gender recognition, to ensure the process is based on self-determination, and is free from abusive requirements (such as GID/medical diagnosis, or surgical/medical intervention).

“Ensuring legislative proposals on anti-discrimination within the area of employment include sex characteristics, so that the draft bill expressly mentions all SOGISC (sexual orientation, gender identity, sex characteristics) grounds.”