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THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — It was a rape of a trans woman in Sweden that brought to attention the ‘sterilization before legal gender change’ law that was on the books in there and in what I thought was just a few other European nations. As it turns out, most European nations have a similar law. In fact, it would be simpler to list the countries that don’t have the sterilization requirement — the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal. (Sweden is dropping their requirement this year and Hungary apparently doesn’t enforce theirs.)

So what of Germany, France, The Netherlands and twenty-six other European countries? Stunningly, sterilization is still required before a gender change can become legal.

Human rights organizations consider sterilization human rights abuse, the United Nations consider it torture and it is somewhat surprising that there isn’t stepped up efforts from within these countries’ governments to reverse these conditions.

However, other entities, such as the Council of Europe, are taking the issue head on. According to an article in Gay Star News, a report coming out in June will address this issue and hopefully accelerate change in Europe. However, it won’t be easy: Transgender Europe’s Richard Köhler made that clear in his comment to the GSN: ‘The debates have shown conservatives are really afraid of the “pregnant man” so they want to insist on sterilization.”

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United Nations report says forced sterilization is torture: https://lexiecannes.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/un-report-says-forced-transgender-reparative-therapy-sterilization-is-torture/

A previous article on Sweden’s sterilization law: https://lexiecannes.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/fear-of-third-gender-prompts-some-swedish-legislators-to-retain-transgender-sterilization-law/

Read more about the Council of Europe’s efforts and see the entire list of European countries where forced or coerced sterilization still exists: Trans people forced to be sterilized across Europe | Gay Star News.

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THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT is associated with Wipe Out Transphobia: http://www.wipeouttransphobia.com/ Support this site, buy a DVD of the transgender-themed feature film “Lexie Cannes“: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963781332 Or via PayPal: http://www.lexiecannes.com/id13.html Follow THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT on Facebook/Twitter/WordPress/Digg/Tumblr/Pinterest/Instagram/Reddit

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Categories: Transgender, Transsexual, Trans