On the occasion of the "Transgender Day of Remembrance" (TDOR), the Institute for the equality of women and men has pointed out that transgender are still discriminated and victim of violence. "The 'transgender' law must be reviewed urgently because "it currently represents serious human rights violations against transgender", they added.
Among the information requests and complaints registered by the Institute in 2014, 10% came from transgender, of which 13% were related to work. Some also faced issues towards insurance companies. This is the reason why the Institute recommends amending the law of May 2007 regarding transgender.
"The law currently requests that transgender resort to strict surgical procedures - including irreversible sterilization - in order to officially register their sex change and thereby violates the physical integrity of the person and his/her right to be recognized as his/her own gender identity.”
Some 794 people have officially changed sex in Belgium between January 1993 and June 2015. Two-thirds have changed from man to woman and one-third from woman to man. In average, 33 men and 16 women change their sex and officially registered the change every year since the law came into effect.
Women who become men are 32 years old in average when they officially register their sex change. Men who become women do this at the average age of 49.
A significant increase in female to male sex change was observed in the last two years for women below the age of 25; from 36 people in June 2013 to 50 in June 2014 and 60 in June 2015, which represents an increase of 67%, against only 9% increase for other age groups.
(Source: Belga)
