Chilean House Approves Transgender Rights Bill
- By
- Carlos Santoscoy
- | January 24, 2018
Chile's House of Deputies on Tuesday approved a transgender rights bill.
Lawmakers in the chamber approved the bill with a 68-35 vote. The legislation now heads to the Senate.
According to the Washington Blade, the bill would allow transgender adults to legally change their name and gender without surgery or a court order.
LGBT rights groups cheered the news.
“Today we advanced a bit more towards dignity and closer to full equal rights,” Rolando Jimenez, president of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, said in a statement.
Twenty countries, including Chile, have signed on to the American Convention of Human Rights. Two weeks ago, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a landmark ruling on LGBT rights. It said that member countries must recognize the rights of transgender individuals and extend marriage rights to same-sex couples.
Incoming President Sebastian Pinera, however, is opposed to LGBT rights. It's unclear whether the Senate will take up the transgender bill before Pinera takes office on March 11.