Transgender people in Ireland have won legal recognition of their status after a law was passed allowing them to change their legal gender with no medical or state intervention.

The majority of countries in Europe require transgender people to undergo surgery and sterilisation, or be diagnosed with a mental disorder and get divorced if they are married, in order to have their desired gender legally recognised.

The gender recognition bill, passed late on Wednesday and set to be signed into law by the end of July, makes Ireland only the third European country, after Denmark and Malta, to allow transgender people aged over 18 to change their legal gender without intervention.

The bill was passed months after the people of Ireland backed same-sex marriage by a landslide in a referendum that marked a dramatic social shift in a country that decriminalised homosexuality just two decades ago.

Ireland’s human rights watchdog welcomed the passage of the legislation as the “latest outworking” of the recent marriage equality referendum vote.



Mark Kelly, the executive director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), said: “This legislation puts Ireland in the small vanguard of countries that provide true equality to their transgender citizens and residents. The passage of the legislation is a testament to the years of dogged campaigning by the trans community and its allies, and particularly to the leadership of Lydia Foy, who first laid down the challenge to the Irish state to treat its trans citizens with dignity”.

The legislation, which will be signed into law by the president shortly, contains a number of other innovative features, including permitting the recognition of a person’s gender of choice based on self-determination, making Ireland only the fourth country in the world to adopt this progressive approach.

Sara Phillips, the chair of Transgender Equality Network Ireland, said: “This legislation marks an incredible shift in Irish society ... This is a historic moment for the trans community in Ireland. Trans people should be the experts of our own gender identity. Self-determination is at the core of our human rights.”

Transgender people in Ireland previously had no legal avenue through which to change their legal gender.

Last year, Denmark became the first European country to allow transgender people to self-determine their legal gender from the age of 18. Malta’s law, introduced in April, permits parents or legal guardians of under-18s to apply in court on their behalf to change legal gender.

Other campaigners also welcomed the Irish law but expressed concern at the restrictions for transgender people aged 16 to 18, who will require medical observation, parental consent and a court order, and the lack of legal provision for under-16s.

Richard Köhler, a senior policy officer at Transgender Europe, said: “A considerable part of the trans community remains excluded. Minors, intersex people and those with a non-binary identity deserve recognition too.”

Amnesty International estimates that up to 1.5 million people across Europe are transgender, a term that describes those whose gender differs from their assigned sex.