schema:articleBody
| - A draft Hungarian law to bar citizens from legally changing their gender sparked protest at home and abroad Thursday with activists branding it "appalling" and warning of greater discrimination if it passes. A legal amendment in a wide-ranging bill submitted to parliament by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government this week proposes blocking access to legal gender recognition for transgender people. According to the text, gender would be defined as "biological sex based on primary sex characteristics and chromosomes". The bill would make it impossible to change a person's sex recorded at birth and would therefore also prevent changing one's legally recognised gender. Critics fear Orban's government is pushing through parts of its controversial socially conservative agenda while attention is distracted by the coronavirus crisis. While the bill containing the provisions on gender will have to be voted on by parliament in the normal way, on Monday MPs approved a law enabling Orban to rule indefinitely by decree. "It is appalling that the government plans to ban legal gender recognition in the shadow of the coronavirus crisis," Tamas Dombos, a board member of the Hungarian LGBT Alliance, told AFP by email. "Such a measure would force trans people to live with documents that do not match their true identity and their appearance," said Dombos. "That exposes them to potential discrimination in employment, housing, access to goods and services, and official procedures," he said. According to rights activists, pro-government media have contributed to a rise in anti-LGBT rhetoric. Orban's conservative policies have included a 2018 decree effectively banning universities from teaching gender studies courses. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic said on Thursday the new gender law was "in contravention with human rights standards", and called on the Budapest assembly not to adopt it. "Transgender persons have the right to legal recognition of their gender based on self-determination," Mijatovic said in a statement. "This is an essential step to ensure respect for their human rights in all areas of life. Legal gender recognition is a matter of human dignity," she said. pmu/jsk/bp
|