STOCKHOLM, February 20, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Homosexual and transgender activists are lambasting the Swedish government for refusing to change a law restricting “sex-change” operations. At issue is a law dating from 1972 that says in order to qualify for a “sex change” operation a person must be over 18-years-old, a Swedish citizen, unmarried or divorced, and be sterilized.
The proposed amendment would remove the requirement for sterilization and divorce. It was proposed by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, following a ruling by the European Council’s Human Rights Commissioner declaring the existing law a violation of human rights. While a majority of Swedish parliamentarians supported the amendment, the Swedish government said in January that they would not allow the change.
The amendment was effectively opposed by the Christian Democrats who swayed the other members of the “centre-right” alliance government to postpone new legislation and commission an inquiry.
The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights spokesman Ulrika Westerlund said the decision has placed “government stability” had over respect for human rights.
“It’s extremely remarkable that a democracy like Sweden now believes that this must be examined further,” she said.
Homosexual and gender activists at the EU have blasted the decision, arguing that the law no longer coincides with existing “gender neutral” marriage law.
“The government’s decision is rather surprising: forcibly sterilizing transgender people is recognized as inhumane across the political spectrum,” Raül Romeva i Rueda, Green MEP from Spain, is quoted by Pink News as saying. “It’s barbaric, outdated and highly unnecessary—not to mention against Sweden’s human rights commitments.”
The Moderate Party and the Liberal Party (Folkpartiet) expressed support for changing the law. “We don't see it as modern, and it doesn't fit with our view of human beings,” party secretary Sofia Arkelsten told TT news agency in September.
The confusion comes from the development of the “gender identity” ideology, that now holds a person can simply decide to change his sex without any medical intervention, and insists that governments go along. Thus the Swedish government along with most public institutions in the country are under intense pressure to agree that “gender self-assignment” is a reality and legal gender is dependent solely on a person’s preference.
Christian Democrat Party leader Göran Hägglund said, “It’s important that we stand by the precautionary principle and don’t rush into legislation. This question needs to be looked at more closely.”
Politicians in the early 1970s would not have been able to anticipate the idea of discretionary “gender” self-assignment, but since then the gender ideology, with full support of the mainstream media and many governments, has moved on. In 2008, the media went into transports of delight over the story of a pregnant woman, Tracy Lagondino, a lesbian who underwent surgery to remove her breasts but who decided not to remove her reproductive organs. The media were nearly unanimous in calling a “pregnant man.”
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