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Israel to permit trans people to legally change gender without surgery

Jan 19 2015
Written by Nick Duffy

Israel is to re-draft its recognition laws, so trans people will no longer be forced to undergo surgery to legally change their gender.

Israel’s Interior Ministry announced it would allow citizens to change their gender designation on ID cards from now on – without requiring them to go through gender reassignment surgery first.

The change is important as a number of trans people either cannot or do not wish to go through complex surgical procedures, in order to have their basic rights recognised.

The change – which Haaretz reports comes after a meeting between Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber and officials from the Interior, Health and Justice Ministries, brings the country in line with a number of more progressive nations.

Last year, the Danish parliament voted to scrap a law that required people to undergo gender reassignment surgery and sterilisation before they were eligible to be recognised as their preferred gender.

The requirement was also abolished at the federal level in the United States last year.

In the UK, the Gender Recognition Act requires applicants to have transitioned two years before a legal change of gender is recognised.

There is no technical requirement for sterilisation or reassignment surgery, but it is accepted as part of the supporting evidence.