Rights of transsexual people in Europe

The recognition of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-and intersexual people have over the course of history been an uneven obstacle race with substantial restrictions (it was not until 2018 that the WHO removed transsexuality from the chapter on mental and behavioural disorders). A recent study by the organisation Transgender Europe (TGEU) indicates that the risk of backsliding in terms of this group's rights remains a worrying reality in Slovakia, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Belarus and Bulgaria. At the other end of the scale, those countries that stand out for their progress in developing the rights of trans people are Spain, Moldova, Andorra, Finland and Iceland.

Closer to home, the approval of Act 4/2023 on real and effective equality of trans people and the guarantee of the rights of LGBTI people (known as the Trans Act) places Spain among the 11 European countries that have some form of "self-identification", in other words a legal gender recognition model based on self-determination. Meanwhile, the Basque Parliament has just now in February 2024 amended the Basque Trans Act on non-discrimination on grounds of gender identity and recognition of the rights of transsexual people.

Despite these regulatory advances, no fewer than 63% of trans people surveyed in Spain say that they have felt discriminated against in the past year. The situation is even worse for those trans people at the intersection of functional diversity or disability, or cultural diversity because they are migrants or refugees.

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