Source:
RFSL pressmeddelande - KD fördröjer viktiga förbättringar för hbt-personerSo there's been work going on to change some of the more shockingly terrible aspects of Sweden's laws re: trans people - namely the whole "divorce and sterilisation mandatory" thing, omg Sweden, aren't we over this whole forced sterilisation thing yet, for serious - and also to make it possible for single women to get help with becoming pregnant in Swedish hospitals. Basically almost all the parties are for this; it is seen as a Good Thing. Well, YEAH.
RFSL say:
När RFSL under valrörelsen förra året genomförde en enkätundersökning bland riksdagskandidaterna svarade 87,5 procent att de var för en förändring av lagen om fastställelse av könstillhörighet i vissa fall på så sätt att kraven på att vara ogift, steril, myndig och svensk medborgare skulle tas bort. Alla partier utom två, Kristdemokraterna och Sverigedemokraterna, har på olika sätt deklarerat att de är för en förändring.
Translation:
When RFSL under the election campaign last year carried out a survey of the parliamentary candidates, 87.5 percent replied that they supported a change in the law regarding confirmation of gender assignment in certain cases in such a way that the requirement to be unmarried, sterile, legally independent and a swedish citizen would be removed. All parties except for two, the Christian Democrats (Kristdemokraterna) and Swedish Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna), have in one way or another declated that they are in favour of a change.
(Sverigedemokraterna, for the record, are the anti-immigration party. They are also in favour women being, like, Real Women, which means at home.)
So I mean, what could possibly go wrong? Those two parties are tiny. They're both hovering around the line which you have to cross to actually qualify to be in parliament at all. The big parties? They're for change, even the Moderate party, which isn't exactly renowned for its progressive thinking (and got terrible marks on the aforementioned survey otherwise - think I posted about that one at the time actually). The department of health and welfare (socialstyrelsen) has also published recommendations to the effect of CHANGE THIS NOW. So it really should be getting changed.
But.
BUT.
There is a problem. Of course there is a problem!
In this case, the problem is called Göran Hägglund. He's the leader of the Christian Democrats.
And as the Christian Democrats are part of the governing coallition, he's also the minister for social affairs.
Guess which department has control over these questions. Go on! Guess! You will be so surprised.
Or, I guess, not.
Yeah, so Göran Hägglund, Minister for Social Affairs, head of a party with four percent of the nation's vote, is effectively blocking the opportunity to give trans people basic human rights and to give women not accompanied by a man the right to get fertilisation help from Swedish hospitals (ALTHOUGH his party got elected to parliament, as the article points out, using a slogan to the effect of "let the family decide more". Hur hur.). He is doing it via the political equivalent of sitting in a corner and going LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU. WHAT PROBLEM.
Let's have a big round of applause for the Christian Democrats!
"For a more humane Sweden" is another othe of the slogans they used last year, by the way.
(I leave you to guess how on earth I could possibly have got into an argument with some of their representatives on the street last year in the run-up to the election...)
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