• Sweden edition

Transgender need more protection in law

Published: 28 Jul 10 09:28 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/28042/20100728/

Transgender people need more protection, the Liberal Party has announced, adding it proposes that the hate crime law be clarified so that it is clear that it also applies to this group, Sveriges Radio's news bulletin Ekot reported on Wednesday.

The proposal is part of a national action plan to combat hate crimes, the report said.

"It is always important that the law be as specific as possible," Integration and Gender Equality Minister Nyamko Sabuni told Ekot. "It is also important to note that there is a group in our society who are neither bi- nor homosexual, but have a different gender identity than the one we believe that they have."

The Swedish Federation for Lesbian Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (Riksförbundet för homosexuellas, bisexuellas och transpersoners rättigheter, RFSL) has long demanded that transgendered people, or people with other gender identities, should be mentioned in hate crime law.

"We fear that transgender people fall through the cracks because the individual courts are not as familiar with the law's preparatory work and miss that the section on hate crimes can be used for transgender people," said RFSL chairwoman Ulrika Westerlund.

The Liberal Party's plan of action for LGBT people's rights will be presented by Sabuni and European Union Affairs Minister Birgitta Ohlsson on Wednesday in connection with the Pride Festival in Stockholm.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

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10:34 July 28, 2010 by voiceofreason
Sex-crazed generation. This will be your downfall just like Greece, Rome, Sodom etc.
00:07 July 29, 2010 by Danielle_A
You need to correct your article, TransgenderED is incorrect. The proper English for the term is simply "Transgender people". TransgenderED implies that it is a 'past state of being' or a 'pervious condition' as oppose to an identity category or descriptive characteristic. "has long demanded that transgendered people," should read: "has long demanded that transgender people," The title should read: "Transgender people need more protection in law." It is improper English to compound the suffixes "er" and "ed". As the suffix '-ER' already means "a person who" in example, a mountaineer - person who climbs mountains or a teacher - one who teaches. While -ED is a inflectional suffix and is used to modify the tense of a word to reflect past tense. Thusly, "Transgendered" would mean "A person who was Transgender" which is improper in the context used in this article.
09:41 July 29, 2010 by Nemesis
This is interesting.

Why does the local insist on contacting inappropiate sources for information.

RFSL is an organisation for homosexual and bisexual people.

http://www.foreningenbenjamin.se/ is the registered group in Sweden for transsexual people, ie those who change sex.

Does the Journalists at the Local have a personal issue with transsexual people as a reason to misinform?

Also while I am at it, the law in Sweden is for transsexual and intersex people changing sex. It is nothing to do with any other groups, such as tranvestites. Any indication to the contrary, is a falsehood.

If you are going to report on anything in Sweden, please actually read the law you are referring to and consult the appropiate groups.

The term transgender was invented in the 60's by a transvestite for tranvestites. It later morphed into a term covering transvestites, she males, drag queens and transsexuals. It has no legal standing as a term anywhere in European law. It is purely an American term which has grown to cover so many groups as to become meaningless.

The appropiate term is transsexual. A transsexual person was determined in a European court case which binds Sweden as well, in the European Court of Justice case known as P v S ( Case C-13/94 ) as being someone intending to, undergoing or who has underwent sex reasignment surgery.

Also I would suggest the author of this article reads the Parliamentary Assembly Of The Council Of Europe, Forty First Ordinary Session, Recommendation 1117 (1989) on the condition of transsexuals.
19:10 August 11, 2010 by inallsincerity
First of all, I would like to applaud the Local for writing about trans issues at all. That is really appreciated.

Danielle is right about the -ed thing, though and I think she explained it pretty well. If the paper finds transgender people to be too cumbersome to write, one can also write transfolk.

Nemesis is wrong about RFSL though. RFSL - Riksförbundet för homosexuellas, bisexuellas och transpersoners rättigheter (RFSL—The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights) is a non-profit organization that works with and for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT). It is non-partisan and not affiliated with any religious organization.

And wrong about transgender too. I'm a transsexual and I also identify with the term transgender and think it's a fantastic umbrella term to refer to anyone whose gender presentation and or gender identity is not in line with heternormativity. And you're wrong about it being an American term-- it is widely used in Europe and has been for a long time now.

Advocates of including transgender people in hate crime legislation really do want to use the inclusive term that includes transvestities and people who don't identify with the gender binary at all. They experience hate crimes related to their gender presentation, not their sexuality.

And 'voiceofreason' you need to sit down and shut up.
16:48 July 1, 2011 by zoroastrina
"voceofreason" is wacko, brainsick and crackbrained. This person is not familiar with the philosophical and neuropsychological discourse on reason. This person, of whatever gender or gender mixture he or she may be, might read Kant's "Kritik der praktischen Vernunft", his "Kritik der reinen Vernunft" and his "Kritik der Urteilskraft". "Reason is this person's sense is a sloppy colloquialism. "Transgendered" has a justification for someone who has undergone gender transition in the past should not have to carry around a stigmatizing label (cf. labeling theory) such as "a transsexual" for the rest of his or her life, as John Money once wrote. "A transgender person" is neutral. Trans plus sex is a Verarschung.

I can barely see this small print and I am a terrible typist, so I apologize for my typographical errors. "underwent" in one comment should be "undergone".
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