The Parliament of Denmark today passed a law which removes the requirement of a ‘Gender Identity Disorder’ diagnosis or any psychological assessment in order for a person to legally obtain their preferred gender.

Gabi Calleja, Co-Chair of ILGA-Europe’s Executive Board commented, “Just like in 1989, when Denmark became the first country in the world to introduce a legal concept of same-sex partnership, today Denmark pioneered another significant change in Europe. Instead of keeping the state in charge of a person’s body and life, the parliament recognised that these are rights pertaining to the individual.”

The Danish parliament also removed such requirements as medical intervention, compulsory surgical intervention and compulsory sterilisation.

The change in procedure will come into force on September 1 of this year and will make the person concerned a sole decision maker without any conditions imposed by the state. From September on, the process will be simply applying for legal change of gender through the relevant authorities and after six months the applicant is asked to confirm their application.

Paulo Côrte-Real, Co-Chair of ILGA-Europe added, “We are very pleased to see the Argentinian model for legal gender recognition being introduced in Europe by Denmark today. The benchmark is set high now and we encourage other European countries to follow suit and to remove unnecessary, humiliating and degrading requirements which hinder people across Europe to fully enjoy their lives in preferred gender.”