Switzerland is at the forefront of the European transgender movement: anyone over 16 will be free to determine their gender

 

 People in Switzerland will be able to legally change their gender through a visit to the Civil Registry Office on January 1, which puts the country at the forefront of the transgender movement in Europe, according to Reuters.

Switzerland joins Ireland, Belgium, Portugal and Norway as one of the few countries on the continent that allow a person to legally change their gender without hormone therapy, medical diagnosis or further evaluation or bureaucratic steps.

 Under the new rules set out in the Swiss Civil Code, anyone aged 16 and over who is not under legal guardianship will be able to adjust their gender and legal name by means of a separate declaration from the Civil Registry Office. For younger children and those under adult protection, the consent of the guardian will be required.

This marks a change from the current set of regionally prescribed standards in Switzerland, which often require a certificate from a medical professional confirming a person's transgender identity.

 Some cantons - semi-autonomous regions of federal Switzerland - also require a person to undergo hormonal treatment or an anatomical transition to legally change gender, while a change of name may require proof that the new name has already been used informally for several years.

Switzerland, long known as socially conservative, voted in September to legalize civil marriage and the right to adopt children for same-sex couples, one of the last countries in Western Europe to do so.

With the new rules on gender reassignment, Switzerland is joining only two dozen countries around the world, aiming to separate gender choices from medical procedures.

While some other European nations, including Denmark, Greece and France, have abolished the requirement for medical procedures, including gender reassignment surgery, sterilization or psychiatric evaluation, their rules require additional steps or conditions.

 The Spanish government unveiled a bill in June that allows anyone over the age of 14 to change their gender legally without a medical diagnosis or hormone therapy. In 2018, Germany became the first European government to introduce a third gender option, but in June 2021 it rejected two bills aimed at introducing gender self-identification. A new transgender member of parliament hopes to deal with this in the current Bundestag and given the Greens' presence in government.