Norway is expected to approve a bill
that would allow people to change their legal gender with the click
of a mouse.
Since the 1970s, transgender people
have had to undergo a physical transformation – a costly and
time-consuming process – to be recognized as having changed their
gender.
According to The
Local, the bill proposes removing such requirements.
Changing gender would involve notifying authorities either by mail or
a website.
The bill has broad majority support in
parliament.
“Norway is in the forefront when it
comes to LGBT rights,” Healthcare Minister Bent Høie
said in a statement. “But our current system for changing legal
gender is unacceptable and has been unchanged for nearly 60 years.
This proposal is in accordance with human rights.”
The measure “is historic because it
is now the individual and not the health services that decide when he
or she has changed legal gender,” he added.
The bill would also lower the age
requirement to change gender from 18 to 16. Minors under 16 can also
change their gender if their parents agree.
Amnesty International praised he bill
as a “historic breakthrough for transgender rights.”
Argentina approved a similar law in
2012.