ENVI and LIBE Committees organized a public hearing on 'Depathologisation of transgender and non-binary persons'. The European Parliament has strongly condemned all forms of discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people, including LGBTIQ+ conversion 'therapies'. Moreover, it has also made repeated calls on the Member States to ban such practices.
Depathologising means removing medical requirements from the procedure aiming at the establishment of the civil status gender of a person - in other words, taking the legal status question out of the medical area. So far, only a very limited number of Member States have introduced Legal Gender Recognition procedures without any medical requirements (Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta). While the removal of gender identity disorder from the list of mental illnesses is recognised as a positive step, several concerns remain with the ICD11 (International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision). The public hearing aimed at addressing the pivotal role of health professionals could have in ensuring that transgender and non-binary persons are not stigmatised and discriminated against in the medical sector, and that they are able to fully fulfil their right to health by ensuring access to quality health care.
- Draft Programme of the hearing (PDF - 130 KB)
- Background to trans specific healthcare (PDF - 88 KB)
- Commission communication of 12 November 2020 - ‘Union of Equality: LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025’
- The Joint Public hearing is also included in the Gender Equality week 24-30 October 2022.
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Briefings and studies
- The rights of LGBTI people in the European Union
- Exploring gender equality across policy areas
- Bans on conversion 'therapies': The situation in selected EU Member States
- Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity