Swedish Gov Advocates Sex Change At 12, Surgery At 15, Against Will Of Parents

The Swedish government is set to vote on new proposals regarding transgendered children. The legislation would make irreversible surgical castration for 15-year-olds and legally changing the gender of 12-year-olds possible, against the will of parents.

The extreme proposals were published in a government commissioned report, “Legal sex and medical sex change“, authored by the Committee on the Age Limit for Approval of a Change of Gender at the beginning of the year. The committee is similar to the British government’s new Transgender Equalities Committee, which is set to make its own recommendations next year.

If the Swedish government accepts the recommendations they will become law in January 2016, making the nation the most ‘progressive’ in Europe on this issue.

Specifically, 15-year-olds would be allowed to decide for themselves if they want to change their legal gender and would be allowed to have a sex-change operation, with their parent’s consent. 12-year-olds would be allowed to change their legal gender, with their parents’ consent.

In the instance that a 12-year-old’s father does not think they are mature enough to change gender, or a 15-year-old’s mother does not want their child to amputate healthy organs, however, the report recommends authorities have the power to overrule the opposing parent.

The report suggests, “giv[ing] Social Services the power to decide that permission can be given without one guardian’s approval, if that is in the best interest of the child.”

The committee also recommended that the process of obtaining a legal gender change and/or sex-change operation be swift and not require the advice or approval of psychologists or doctors.

The law should “not make any direct or indirect demands that the person is treated medically in order to receive a legal gender change.”

This is precisely what has been recommended to the UK’s Transgender Equalities Committee, and has already been adopted in Ireland.

The British equivalent has also heard evidence advocating three and four-year-olds be exposed to transgender literature in school, and that the country should legally recognise a “third gender” such a “gender queer” or “pangender.”