Medical validation will be required to change name and gender in the civil registry and medical treatments for minors with gender dysphoria will be prohibited. “Shame”, shouted the PT bench.
PSD, Chega and CDS-PP approved this Friday their bills on , providing for the mandatory medical validation for changing name and gender in the civil registryinitiatives that received votes against from the remaining parties.
The three bills were generally approved with votes in favor of PSD, Chega and CDS-PP e votes against PS, IL, Book, PCP, BE, PAN and JPP.
At the end of the three votes, there was applause from the Rio Grande do Sul bench and “shame” from the PT member.
After the approval of Chega’s diploma, four PSD deputies – a group that had voting discipline –, including Eva Brás Pinho and Paula Cardoso, announced the delivery of a written declaration of vote.
In the end, several parties also announced oral declarations of vote, including the PSD parliamentary leader.
In the votes 204 of the 230 deputies participatedmissing, for example, 11 from PSD, 10 from PS and five from Chega. One of those absent from the vote was the vice-president of the Assembly of the Republic, Teresa Morais, who left the plenary before voting on these projects and returned afterwards.
The PSD bill proposes the repeal of the 2018 legislation and return to the 2011 regimealso reintroducing mandatory medical validation for changing name and gender in the civil registry. The party argues that self-determination without technical validation compromises legal security and defends a framework based on medical and scientific criteria.
Chega’s project goes in the same direction, repealing current legislation, changing the procedures for changing names and gender in the civil registry and prohibiting medical treatments in cases of gender dysphoria in young people under 18invoking the “protection of children and young people”.
The CDS-PP wants prohibit the use of puberty blockers and hormonal therapies in minors with gender dysphoriainvoking the precautionary principle and concerns about impacts on physical and psychological health, arguing that such decisions should be postponed until adulthood.
“Attack”, “we are not diagnoses”: change “equates trans people with patients”
Until then, since 2018, thanks to gender self-determination, trans people could change their name or sex in the civil registry without the need for a medical diagnosis.
This Thursday, more than 200 people gathered in front of the Legislative Assembly to contest the proposals to change this law, with posters with slogans such as “my name is not a debate” and “We are not diagnosticians”.
“It’s very negative because creates huge obstacles in day-to-day life people and gives the perception that we have a mental health problem“, the president of the association ILGA Portugal – Intervenção Lésbica, Gay, Bisexual, Trans e Intersex, Daniela Bento, told Lusa.
One of the protesters, Envy Zawal, 25, told Lusa that if the changes in the law come into force, people will “be forced to tell stories that affect them psychologically, several times”.
“[As pessoas] will be forced to be addressed by names they don’t like and which for them is one form of violence“, he added.
In the gathering, where drums could be heard, there was also Pedro Silva, 33 years old, characterizing the changes in the law as an attack on human rights. “It is a right to live your identity to its fullest,” he said.
Before the demonstration, some organizations, including ILGA-Portugal, Opus Diversidades and AMPLOS- Association of Mothers and Fathers for the Freedom of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, were received by PSD deputies.
The president of ILGA Portugal warned that PSD deputies conveyed the idea that changes to the law are necessary because it is necessary to appeal to society’s consensus regarding gender identity.
“In other words, if society doesn’t understand, then we’re going to criticize these people and we’re going to cloister these people in diagnoses because the rest of society doesn’t understand,” said Daniela Bento.
The president of OPUS Diversidades, Helder Bertolo, said that the deputies showed “not having great knowledge on the subject“, highlighting that changes in the law will legitimize positions that argue that trans people are sick.
Helder Bertolo also said that he does not believe that the changes will materialize.
“I believe that there are questions of unconstitutionality that will certainly be raised by the President of the Republic and the strength in the streets, the strength of the populations, of families, will certainly be heard”, said the president of OPUS Diversidades.
