Forced Sterilization of Swedish Transgender People Is a Violation of Dignity

A campaign is underway to remove Sweden’s requirement that transgender people undergo forced sterilization before the state will officially recognize their correct gender identity.  The Christian Democrats are currently blocking removal of this requirement, while there is support for removing other barriers to official gender identity change, such as a requirement that the person by unmarried.  The Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights has recommended that European states remove physical requirements to official gender change, noting that sterilization requirements “clearly [run] against principles of human rights and human dignity.”  WPATH’s current standards of care state that “[t]ranssexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming people should not be refused reproductive options for any reason.”

Forced sterilization in any case is a violation of human dignity.  We’ve seen this question come up in the context of women with disabilities, the Chinese one-child policy, and women of color in North Carolina seeking reparations for the harm done to them by sterilization in the not-so-distant past.  The question is no different when it comes to transgender people seeking a change of gender on identity documents.  It is inhumane to force people to choose between invasive surgery on the one hand and the pervasive harms that come from having a gender that does not match official documentation on the other.

If you would like to support this campaign, a petition is currently underway to urge Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt to stand up for the rights of transgender citizens of his country.  Human Rights Watch has also sent a letter urging Reinfeldt to act consistently with the principles of human rights that his country normally espouses.  Sweden is not the only country in Europe that has a sterilization policy for gender change, but revocation of the Swedish policy would be a significant step towards changing policies throughout Europe and elsewhere.