LGBTQ+ rights advocates today launched a petition to abolish a rule requiring transgender people to show proof of genital surgery to change their legal gender, requesting the government to act immediately.
According to Ministry of the Interior regulations instated in 2008, transgender people need to submit two letters from a psychiatrist and a certificate showing they had genital gender-affirming surgery to change their legal gender.
The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) has repeatedly called these regulations unconstitutional and has filed lawsuits on behalf of transgender people seeking to change their legal gender.
Photo: CNA
The alliance in a news conference today announced a public petition to abolish the mandatory surgery requirement, calling on all those who support transgender rights to speak out together.
Human rights experts have repeatedly said that surgery should not be a requirement to change legal gender, TAPCPR secretary-general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔) said, citing a 2014 ruling from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
There have already been seven court rulings in Taiwan stating that surgery is not required, showing that the ministry’s regulations may be unconstitutional and illegal, Chien said.
Despite these rulings, administrative authorities have only said they would wait for legislation without committing to a timeline, TAPCPR lawyer Victoria Hsu (許秀雯) said.
“Human rights cannot be delayed even for a moment,” Hsu said.
The ministry should first withdraw the regulations and then provide temporary measures for transgender people to change their legal gender, while also accelerating legislative action, she said.
National Taiwan University professor Chang Hsiao-hung (張小虹) said that requiring surgery to change one’s legal gender is a form of state violence based on reinforcing the gender binary.
The petition was initiated by leaders from law, sociology, medicine, social work and religious communities, and brings together activists from the human rights, gender, law, healthcare, education, labor and sex work fields, Chien said.
This cross-sector collaboration shows broad social consensus on abolishing the surgery requirement, Chien said, requesting that the government act immediately to meet public demand.
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