Wednesday the 12th of October, 2016, was a day to remember for the LGBT community in France.

New legislation was passed by the French Government which now allows transgender people to legally change their gender identity without having to go through any expensive medical procedures.

This means that trans people living in the French Republic will no longer have to go through a process of sterilisation to changer their gender.

ILGA-Europe are a European movement that advocates and seeks to promote the interests of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and the intersex people of Europe.

It hailed the new law as a sign of “clear progress” being made as another “European country dispenses with the shameful act of forced sterilisation”.

Trans people will no longer be required to provide medical proof of any treatment that they may or may not have partaken in to change their sex.

However, there are still some restrictions to the law which ILGA-Europe have strongly objected to.

Transgender people in France will still have to go through the court system in order for their change in gender to be recognised.

Within the last few years, European countries such as Malta, Denmark and Ireland passed legislation that allows for transgender people to legally change their gender identity without having to partake in any medical and juridical procedures.

Executive Director of ILGA-Europe, Evelyne Paradis congratulated the trans people in France but also pointed out that more work needs to be done.

“The fact that France did not take the more progressive and humane path open to it is very regretful. The fight will go on for full equality and respect for trans people in France”.

According to a European Union report published in December 2014, transgender people are twice as likely as gay people to be attacked, threatened or receive hate speech out in the street and online.

Gender has to be specified on passports, driving licences and many other essential documents so the change in law will help give trans people an identity recognised by the State.

Previous laws required medical proof that the person had been sterilised irreversibly in order for their gender status to be changed.
However, not all trans people wish to change their sex at all.

This is where the definitions between transgender and transsexual can collide.

In order to understand the difference between transgender and transsexual, one will do well to keep the following line in mind: sex is a biological factor whereas gender identity occurs in the mind.

Transgender people

Can be seen as an umbrella term that can include transsexuals.

It refers to those whose self-identity does not adhere to the conventional forms associated with male and female identity.  

An example of a transgender or a gender fluid person is an androgynous one: that is, someone of indeterminate sex that can appear male as well as female in appearance and generally does not adhere to one gender.

All the definitions do away with the more binary conceptualisations of masculinity and femininity and what is male and female identity.

Transsexual people

A transsexual refers to people that physically transition from male to female or vice versa.

Their biological sex at birth is inconsistent with the gender they wise to be identified as.

In order to combat their biological gender, they might take special hormones that suppress the characteristics of that sex and promote the physiognomies of their desired gender.

They may also choose to go through gender reassignment surgery to provide them with the genitalia of their desired sex.

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