Latest news with #gender identity
Malay Mail
a day ago
- Health
- Malay Mail
‘One less thing to worry about': Sweden cuts red tape on legal gender change, lowers age limit to 16
STOCKHOLM, July 17 — After four years of waiting, Jenny Leonor Werner sees the light at the end of the tunnel, able to legally switch gender following a recent change to Swedish law. As of July 1, Sweden has removed some of the restrictions for changing gender legally and how it appears on official documents. 'It just feels good — one less thing to worry about,' Werner, 22, who was declared male at birth but identifies as female, told AFP. Now all that is needed to change is a medical certificate stating that a person's gender identity does not align with the one indicated on their birth certificate. Healthcare professionals have to evaluate whether the change better reflects the person's gender identity and must ensure that the person can live with their new gender identity for the foreseeable future. The minimum age to make the change has also been lowered from 18 to 16 years, although people under 18 need permission from their legal guardian. A week after the law came into effect, 106 people had submitted applications, according to Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare. Previously, individuals wanting to change their legal gender had to undergo a lengthy evaluation process in order to obtain a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. That is a condition where a person experiences distress as a result of a mismatch between the sex they were assigned at birth and the gender they identify themselves as having. Werner had received this diagnosis in 2024 after a four-year process and could have already requested the legal change. But healthcare staff advised her 'to wait for the new law, as the process should be faster'. Gender dysphoria rise Access to surgical procedures is also simplified under the new law — the requirement to first change one's legal gender has been removed. Before the law was passed in April of last year, it was preceded by intense debates in parliament, with the right-wing ruling coalition government divided. The Moderates and Liberals were in favour of the text but government partner the Christian Democrats opposed it, as did the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, which is propping up the government. 'This law is a major step forward. The separation of law and medicine in the new law makes things much easier,' Frank Berglund, a policy expert at the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU), told AFP. Berglund, 30, legally changed his gender at the age of 19. Like Werner, it took him about four years to obtain the gender dysphoria diagnosis. Currently, the waiting time to even begin an evaluation can stretch to several years, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare. The health agency has also noted a sharp increase in cases of gender dysphoria, particularly among 13- to 17-year-olds who were 'assigned female at birth'. The agency reported a 1,500-per cent jump between 2008 and 2018. Following the rapid increase and citing a need for caution, Swedish authorities decided in 2022 to halt hormone therapy for minors except in very rare cases. They also limited mastectomies for teenagers wanting to transition. Shorter waiting lists Berglund said the new law would help 'reduce waiting lists in healthcare to some extent'. He also welcomed the possibility of making the legal change before the age of 18, saying it was absurd that he had been able to complete the entire medical procedure before 18 but not the legal process. 'I had already changed my name, started hormone treatment and received the diagnosis,' he said. Werner recounted being asked: 'Is this you?' when showing her identification card. 'Now I can get a new ID card that I'm really happy with,' she said. 'I've never been satisfied with the ID cards and passports I've had before.' With the new law, Sweden is amending its gender identity legislation for the first time since it was first adopted in 1972. Back then, the Nordic country became a world pioneer by allowing people to legally change their gender. But campaigners want Sweden to go further and allow people to change their legal gender without requiring a medical certificate, as is the case in all other Nordic countries. — AFP
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Labour clearing way for gender identity lessons in schools, say Tories
Labour has paved the way for lessons on gender identity in schools, the Conservatives have claimed. New sex education guidance, published on Tuesday, watered down Tory proposals to ban lessons on gender identity. The Government's updated relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) guidance said schools should teach children the facts and law around gender reassignment, but did not rule out wider debates on gender identity. From September next year, secondary schools will be told to separate science from opinion in lessons on the topic and ensure they do 'not teach as fact that all people have a gender identity'. Labour has removed a section from the draft guidance drawn up by the Tories, which stated that 'schools should not teach about the broader concept of gender identity' amid claims that it 'is a highly contested and complex subject'. Teachers will instead be instructed to 'be mindful' that there is 'significant debate' around the subject and to 'be careful not to endorse any particular view or teach it as fact', the new guidance says. 'There must be strict age limits' Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, claimed it could pave the way for inappropriate debates on gender identity that failed to distinguish facts from contested views. 'The new guidance opens the door to controversial gender identity discussions that have no place in our schools,' she said. 'Labour's updated RSHE guidance utterly fails to shield children from inappropriate content. There must be strict age limits – children under nine should not be exposed to lessons on sex, pornography, or harassment.' The Government said it chose to amend the Tory proposals on gender identity after the majority of respondents to a consultation on the matter said they disagreed with them. Almost two thirds of more than 14,000 people consulted said they did not support calls to ban gender identity discussions from the classroom. Responses highlighted by the Government said it would be impossible for schools to fulfil their legal obligation to teach children about gender reassignment without the topic arising. However, others expressed concerns about 'how to teach about gender identity while complying with duties in the education act to be politically impartial'. Schools should avoid sex education materials that 'oversimplify' the matter, perpetuate gender stereotypes or 'encourage pupils to question their gender', the new guidance says. Labour has also chosen to take forward Tory proposals for parents to be able to see sex education material upon request and withdraw their children from lessons if they disagree with the content. Helen Joyce, the founder of Sex Matters, said it came after Mermaids, a controversial trans children's charity, produced a chart teaching pupils their gender identity 'on a scale that runs from Barbie to GI Joe'. 'Far too much harm has already been done by sexist and frankly stupid teaching materials that lie to children by telling them it's your personality and interests that determine whether you're a boy or a girl,' she said. Labour's revised guidance, which comes more than a year after the closure of a public consultation on the draft Tory regulations, has also scrapped plans to ban sex education for children under the age of nine. The previous Tory government had called for sex education lessons to be limited to pupils in Year Five and above amid concerns that children were being exposed to explicit content before they are mature enough. It had also proposed for issues such as sexual harassment, revenge porn, upskirting and sexual exploitation not to be taught before Year Seven and for discussions of extreme sexual violence not to take place before Year Nine. 'Labour keep dragging their feet' Primary school pupils will now be taught about things like pornography and deepfakes if teachers become aware that pupils have already stumbled across them online, after a 2023 report by the Children's Commissioner found the average age for exposure to pornography was 13. Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, told the BBC that it might be necessary 'to broach a topic a little bit sooner' than usual in some schools, but that parents would be consulted in such cases. The Department for Education will issue separate guidance later this year, advising schools on appropriate measures for gender-questioning children, such as whether teachers should adopt preferred pronouns or tell a child's parent about a name change request. Ms Trott said: 'The Education Secretary's top priority must be safeguarding children and protecting women and girls, but Labour keep dragging their feet on publishing clear guidance on gender-questioning children. This failure is unacceptable. Our children and parents deserve better.' Margaret Mulholland, the inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'We hope soon to see specific guidance on supporting gender-questioning children, something for which we have been calling for several years.'
The Independent
2 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Equalities watchdog guidance delayed until later in year
Guidance from Britain's equalities watchdog including on trans peoples' use of certain spaces is likely to be delayed until later this year. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it received more than 50,000 responses to its code of practice consultation. The commission had been expected to present final guidance to women and equalities minister Bridget Phillipson by the time Parliament broke up for summer next week. But in an update on Tuesday, the regulator said it was continuing to review the thousands of responses and would be amending its draft code over the summer. In an update on its website, the commission said: 'We received over 50,000 responses to our code of practice consultation. 'We are working at pace to review these and will use our findings to amend the draft code of practice over the summer. Keep checking this page for further updates.' The commission had earlier tripled the length of time for feedback, from an original proposal for a two-week consultation, following criticism from some that this was too short a timeframe. Following a Supreme Court ruling in April, which said the words 'woman' and 'sex' in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex, the commission issued draft guidance on a range of topics, including trans peoples' participation in sport and use of toilets. According to the draft, a birth certificate could be requested by a sports club or hospital if there is 'genuine concern' about what biological sex a person is. Elsewhere, the draft code said trans people can be excluded from competitive sport 'when necessary for reasons of safety or fair competition', and gave an example of how some services might be able to adapt to 'offer toilets in individual lockable rooms to be used by both sexes'. The code stated that a service provided only to women and trans women or only to men and trans men 'is not a separate-sex or single-sex service' under the Equality Act and could amount to unlawful sex discrimination against those of the opposite sex who are not allowed to use it. Commission chairwoman Baroness Kishwer Falkner previously said there was an 'obvious' demand since the court's ruling for 'authoritative guidance' for a range of providers from businesses to hospitals to sports clubs.
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Vogue
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Vogue
13 Feminist Books That Deserve a Place on Your Nightstand
It's officially 'dive into a good book at the beach' season, but there's no rule that says you can't work on your tan (with the help of judiciously applied SPF, please) and expand your feminist consciousness at the same time. To that end, we've rounded up some of our all-time favorite feminist books with the help of a handful of authors whose work never fails to teach us something new and necessary about gender, identity and power. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media by Susan J. Douglas (1994) Where the Girls Are $19 Bookshop I was in a hot, dusty high school classroom when I first became aware of this book, which my favorite teacher included on our tenth-grade Contemporary American History syllabus (shoutout, Dr. Catapano!). I still return to Douglas's carefully laid-out and incisive social history of feminism as presented by postwar American media whenever I need a refresher on how far we've come. —Emma Specter, culture writer, Vogue Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (2019) It may be surprising to see fiction on this list, but Evaristo's skill at portraying 12 very different protagonists in this Booker Prize-winning novel, which spans decades' worth of race, class, gender, and sexuality-based identity, more than deserves some good old-fashioned feminist acclaim. —ES Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay (2017) It feels like time can be cleanly divided into 'BH' (Before Hunger) and 'AH' (After Hunger), thanks to the passion and power of Gay's story about attempting to heal from intense trauma by binge-eating, succumbing to the all-too-familiar diet-binge cycle, and, finally, striving to live a full and comfortable life as a fat, Black, queer American woman. —ES Wages Against Housework by Silvia Federici (1975) This book is as brief as it is brilliant, which is saying a lot; in it, Italian-American writer, professor, and Marxist feminist Federici applies her prodigious intellectual skill to the question of whether women deserve pay for the domestic labor they disproportionately perform at home. A personal favorite quote: 'Homosexuality and heterosexuality are both working conditions…but homosexuality is workers' control of production, not the end of work.' —ES Corregidora by Gayl Jones (1975) A painful read that I couldn't tear myself away from. A book about how, sometimes, the foundation of connection is shared pain. —Jazmine Hughes, writer Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang (2025) 'I am breathless over this one. I know this one is going to rip people apart in the best way—it just cuts right to the core—the book itself is so emotionally ALIVE in the way that Enka desires her art to be, the way the world in the book experiences Mathilde's art to be. It's so fucking meta what you're able to do—art within art within art. I don't know how you do it, but also don't care to know so I can just revel in it!' —Haley Jakobson, author, Old Enough, in a text to Huang after reading the novel Love Is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar (2021) Driving cross-country solo is potentially one of the most empowering things a woman can do, and Jarrar gives a new and distinctive voice to the experience in this memoir about traversing America as a queer, Muslim, Palestinian-Egyptian feminist determined to chart the course of her own story. —ES Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall (2020) Race created the conditions for one of the greatest original fissures within the feminist movement, which makes Kendall's exploration of the ways in which mainstream feminism has continued to fail women of color feel particularly timely, even five years after its publication. —ES The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde (1980) Lorde's work can be found on Gender Studies 101 reading lists around the world, but The Cancer Journals is particularly notable for its references to the pioneering Black feminist author, professor, and civil rights activist's own struggle with breast cancer and its study of illness and disability as a kind of scaffolding that can partly shape a life. —ES The Group by Mary McCarthy (1963) This rollicking read about a group of pretty, privileged (to some degree) Vassar alumnae making their way in the big city may not seem like an overtly feminist text, but nobody did it like McCarthy when it came to giving voice to women's sexual appetites, professional dreams, and interpersonal desires. —ES Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary by Toshio Meronek and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (2023) Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary $19 Bookshop This book helped me not only see myself, but see my community in a clearer, brighter light. I've known Miss Major nearly 20 years now and her wisdom has thoroughly shaped my life. This book captures her vibrant, joyful voice in conversation with Toshio Meronek. For those who aren't familiar, Miss Major is a trans elder who has led and shaped trans and gender non-conforming people's fight for a just, inclusive world in too many ways to count. Toshio and Miss Major engage in a conversation that draws out history and story and memory in such a distinctive way, and I'm so grateful to Miss Major for sharing her wisdom with us all. —Tourmaline, artist and author, Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson (2016) Gender is just one of the topics that Nelson excavates in this memoir-cum-philosophical-theory project about meeting, falling in love with, and building a family with her transmasculine partner, but the central message of body liberation (for trans individuals as well as pregnant people) that Nelson disseminates is a powerful one. —ES SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas (1967) You can't make a proper feminist reading list without eventually coming to Solanas, whose exhortation to women was simple and clear: Overthrow the patriarchy and stop letting men occupy almost all the positions of power in global society. Is this one quite radical? Sure. Does it feel more relevant than ever in our current hellscape? Absolutely. —ES
