Trans ry Parliamentary Election Goals 2023

Trans ry -

We at Trans ry have listed goals important to us that we hope to be achieved during the coming governmental term, and which we want members of the parliament to commit to work towards.

The recently passed new trans law improves the juridical standing and human rights of gender minorities to a degree, but hardly enough. During the next government term we require a trans act that allows for full self-determination, that extends the right to legal gender recognition to minors as well.

In addition, we expect the future government to act to ensure the bodily integrity of intersex people by law, to legally recognize non-binary individuals and to ensure sufficient resources for trans healthcare to be accessible in practice.

Parliamentary election candidate: If you share our goals and are willing to commit to advancing them, you can sign our list of election objectives by filling this form: (the form is unfortunately in Finnish)

Sitoutuminen Trans ry:n eduskuntavaalitavoitteihin 2023
Me Trans ry:ssä olemme listanneet meille tärkeimpiä tavoitteita, joiden toivomme toteutuvan seuraavalla hallituskaudella, ja joiden puolesta haluamme kansanedustajien sitoutuvan tekemään töitä.Eduskuntavaaliehdokas: Jos jaat tavoitteemme ja sitoudut edistämään niitä, voit allekirjoittaa vaalitavoit…
Google Docs

We maintain a list of committed candidates on our website. The list is updated manually, so there is a delay until the information of those that have signed will appear. You can find the candidate listing here:
https://transry.fi/eduskuntavaalit-2023/
(Information on the page is in Finnish, but there is nothing that is not covered in English here)

Trans ry parliamentary election objectives

1. Rights to trans children and youths

Right to legal gender recognition ought to be extended also to minors. Preparations for the amendment must begin, in accordance with the statement voted for by the parliament during the trans act reform.

During the preparations for the new trans act that was passed in February, countless experts, human rights advocates, organizations and, most importantly, trans children and youths themselves have repeatedly and conclusively brought up that requirement for the age majority for legal gender recognition is not in accordance with childrens’ rights and does not ensure the human rights of transgender children and youths. In their statement regarding the trans act reform, even the Constitutional Law Committee brought up that the requirement of age of majority is not necessarily compatible with the constitutional legal rights of minors: a child must have a right to be heard in matters that concern them.

2. The right of intersex children to bodily integrity must be protected

In Finland, surgical and other medical interventions are performed on intersex children, which aim to “normalize” the gendered/sexed aspects of the child’s body. These sort of medically unnecessary operations violate in an unbearable way the rights of intersex children to bodily autonomy and integrity. These cosmetic, “normalizing” operations can at worst cause permanent harm to the child’s body, and will have effects on them for the rest of their life. A separate law must be enacted which forbids operations aiming to alter the gendered/sexed characteristics of a child without medical necessity, without the child having the possibility to give informed consent.

Finland ought to adopt a third legal gender marker to accompany the existing female and male markers. It is high time to legally recognize the existence of non-binary people and to abandon the absolute binary of the legal gender system. Preparation and inquiry work for a third legal gender is to be started in the coming term.

Personal identity codes are planned to be gender neutral from 2027 onwards. Trans ry regards this as an opportune moment to enact a third legal gender.

The possibility to receive gender affirming and dysphoria alleviating treatment is crucial. In addition to a general lack of sufficient resources in public healthcare, specialized medical care focused on gender dysphoria is especially overstretched and under-resourced. The current recommendations for the treatment of gender dysphoria also expect necessary psychosocial support to be arranged locally before diagnosis and treatment within centralized special care is possible. As a result, guaranteeing sufficient resources of social and health services in general is crucial regards to the accessibility of gender affirming care.

5. Abolishing the trans registry

During the process of legal gender recognition, information regarding gender confirmation remains within the population information system. This includes specifically registering information that a gender confirmation has taken place, which in practice is information that the person is transgender. This is a huge risk to the privacy and safety of those who have gone through the process of gender recognition. This information, along with information on past gender markers and personal identity codes must not unnecessarily remain within the system, they ought to be erased after a reasonable transition period after gender confirmation.