In my home country, Finland, there has lately been a lot of talk about transgender rights. The latest law regarding trans rights is from 2003 and is unsurprisingly pretty horrible. The biggest problem with the law is that it states that anyone who wants to correct their gender juridically- that is, in official records- must be infertile. This is a blatant breach of the human rights of transgender people and Finland has been criticized for it on several occasions. Luckily, the law is about to change. In Finland, we have an internet page in which citizens can suggest new laws or changes to existing laws. These are called initiatives. Other citizens can sign the initiatives they think are good and when an initiative gains 50 000 signatures, the parliament has to discuss it in an official meeting. A new trans law was suggested through this service and quickly gained the signatures needed. Now the parliament is discussing the new law and in this article, I’m going to go through what is going to change and why.
Let’s start with the infertility thing. After the law is changed, you can change your juridical gender without having to prove your infertility which is how it should always have been. When the latest trans law was drafted some 20 years ago, they thought that men giving birth would be weird and that is why the infertility clause was added. That is an absurd reason and proves the prejudice of the lawmakers 20 years ago. Then again, 20 years ago we knew a lot less about trans issues and the clause should have been changed as soon as more information was gained. Now it is way too late but I guess it’s better late than never. In any case, this is a huge step in the right direction for the realization of transgender rights.
In the trans law initiative, it was suggested that people should be allowed to simply announce what their juridical gender is. In the current law, that is not possible but a statement from a doctor is required. This suggestion probably won’t be accepted the way it is. Trans people will be able to announce their gender but through an application where they have to explain why they want their juridical gender changed. I believe just announcing your gender should be enough. We are not talking about correcting your gender medically but just having your gender recognized officially. If someone regrets asking for their juridical gender to be changed, it will be easy to change it back. Also, no one should have to convince anyone else that they are the gender they are since they themselves are the ones who know the best.
Another suggestion made by the initiative was that people over the age of 15 should be able to change their juridical gender. Now the age limit is 18. There has been a lot of fighting over this lately and we still don’t know whether the suggestion is going to be accepted. In Finland, people over the age of 15 are criminally responsible for their actions. In my opinion, this should mean they are responsible enough to decide about their own gender also. Again, we are not talking about any medical decisions but juridical gender that is easily reversible. Children also have the right to be recognized as the representatives of their gender the same way as adults.
The initiative doesn’t really talk that much about non-binary people. That is a shame because their status in the Finnish system is not great. Finland only recognizes two genders, man and woman which leaves a bunch of non-binary people out. I definitely think that you should also be able to register as a representative of a third gender. There has already been quite a bit of talk regarding this but unfortunately, the law is not likely to change anytime soon when it comes to non-binary people.
To sum it all up, transgender rights are definitely being improved in Finland which is great but more could be done. This is a good start that will hopefully lead to more changes in the future. Trans rights are human rights and they should be respected just like any other human rights.