Queer As Art issue 2 April-May-June 2017 | Page 8

Paris ’ Pride in 2016 had for revendication that “ the rights of trans people are a priority ”. Indeed , in the cadre of the law “ Justice in the 21st century ”, the situation can finally change . Now that the law has passed , it is necessary to come back on the affair of the civil state change , on the revendications and the results of a process that had been going on since 1992 . It was estimated that this law affects about 10 000 to 15 000 people in France ( who are “ in transition ”, following the National Assembly ’ s sayings ) but this number is surely under-estimated .
I DON ’ T HAVE TIME TO READ , SUM IT UP
Before the law , trans people were facing a juridic void . Changing your civil state is linked to jurisprudence , which means that only competent judges validate or not the change .
The law was brought to the Senate , more conservative . The changes that were then applied provoked a general uproar and were considered as a “ huge step b a c k ” ( C l é m e n c e Z a m o r a - C r u z , spokesperson for Inter-LGBT ).
Trans people are still seen as suffering from psychological troubles , which means they need a tight file to prove that they really live under the gender they demand . However , the psychological follow-up ( necessary before the change , for a couple of years ) is cut out . The heavy , costly and difficult procedure is in their eyes a way to prevent people “ that are troubled to claim to be of an other sex ”.
The National Assembly finally had the last word : no self-determination by a free and easy procedure in mairies but no obligatory sterilisation or modification of genital organs , the file being constituted by the one asking for the change . It is no m o r e t a l k e d o f a s y n d r o m e o f transsexualism ( this “ syndrome ” having anyway been outed from psychiatric books since 2010 ). Organisations such as Fédération LGBT + underlined the “ judiciarisation , the arbitrary appreciation of magistrates , the binary and disparity of the procedure depending on the territories .” Some however judge this procedure as perfectible and consider the supervision of the civil state change as an improvement .
A “ JURIDICAL VOID ” ( AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL )
No law recognise specific rights for t r a n s p e o p l e : n o fi g h t a g a i n s t discriminations is put in place and , more importantly , no regulations around the civil state change .
Before 1992 , trans people were facing a juridical emptiness which led to a systematic refusal of their demands . We had to wait until 1987 for a Mlle B . to appeal to the European Commission of Human Rights . The latter states a violation of human rights and condemn France in 1992 .
Following this decision , the civil state change belongs to the field of
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