Trans people suffer high levels of repeat victimization and violence and employment discrimination
A new map reveals how transgender Europeans are denied the right to have their gender legally recognized or forced to be sterilized before they can.
The Transgender Europe (TGEU) map reflects European countries’ laws and administrative practices which protect or violate the human rights of trans people.
And its new index provides detailed country information saying 24 countries in Europe require sterilization before trans people can legally change their gender.
Sweden’s parliament has recently changed its law demanding sterilization before transition is legally recognized, after the issue became a major international scandal.
But as Gay Star News revealed last month, the Council of Europe remains concerned about the widespread use of sterilization across the continent, calling it a major human rights abuse.
Meanwhile 16 countries do not provide for any possibility to change name and gender at all.
This makes applying for a job, opening a bank account, and even something as simple as boarding a plane very difficult or even impossible.
TGEU says people are therefore barred from active participation in social and economic life.
Richard Koehler, TGEU policy officer, said that the Trans Rights Europe Index should guide policy makers to take action to ensure human rights and equality for all trans people.
It comes as a TGEU study shows 71 murders of trans people have been documented in Europe in the last five years.
And the new European Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) report on the European Union and Croatia, which is about to join the EU, said 46% of trans Europeans had suffered harassment in the last year.
Transgender people are also twice as likely to be discriminated against when looking for a job than the lesbian, gay and bisexual population.
One of the 6,771 trans identified respondents of the EU LGBT survey said, ‘I experience so much discrimination, harassment and violence that it has become my daily life’.
Alecs Recher, a member of the Executive Board of TGEU, said: ‘The FRA study confirms that the experience of violence and discrimination of transgender people is systematic and widespread.
‘We expect the European Union to finally commit to a comprehensive approach towards the rights of LGBTI people which presents clear objectives and measures on how to realize human rights for all trans people.’
Transgender Europe (TGEU) is a European Human Rights Organization with members in 36 countries working for equality and inclusion of all trans people.
The TGEU map below shows countries in blue that require no sterilization, orange for countries that require sterilization and red for countries where trans people can not legally change their gender.