New Law on Gender Identity in Sweden Divides Nation and Creates Unusual Alliances: Analysis and Controversy

Sweden was to draw closer to its Scandinavian neighbours. Now the new law on gender identity has created divisions and unusual alliances.

Sweden was the first in the world to legislate that transgender people could change their legal gender. It happened in 1972. More than 50 years later, they now make the process easier.

But even if everything indicates that a clear majority will accept the law on April 17, the debate has become unusual.

It will be easier to change the legal gender

Political scientist Patrick Öhberg at the University of Gothenburg says it is unusual for Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to promote an issue that divides both the government and his own party.

Ulf Kristersson has revealed that Sweden now has stricter regulations than the rest of the Nordic region. The change in the law is seen as an important reform to improve the living conditions of transgender people. Kristersson is worried about this.

In Sweden, you still have to get a diagnosis and be 18 years old to get permission to change your gender in the population register. In neighboring countries, it is accepted that a person identifies as a different gender than the gender determined at birth.

• It should now be possible to get a social security number and a new gender in the national registry without being diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
• In addition, Sweden will lower the age limit for legal gender change to 16, if the parents agree.

Across old dividing lines

But neither the government partner the Christian Democrats nor the support party Sweden Democrats will participate in the bill. And even within the Moderates and the Social Democrats there are different voices. There is much opposition to the bill and it has created strange constellations. For example yes women’s groups, also the leader of the Social Democrats, against the proposal. The same is true of the far-right Sweden Democrats.

Political scientist Petter Öhberg says that this topic is complex. He does not follow the usual left axis in Swedish politics.

– This question has a different dynamic.

In addition, he says that he divides the Moderates, between the Liberals and the Conservatives. Öhberg says that the issue is complicated for Ulf Kristersson because his authority in the party could be in question. He complicated the whole thing by saying that he himself would prefer to keep the 18-year-old age standard.

He made a U-turn

Critics fear that legal gender reassignment will also lower the standard for medical procedures. Supporters of the law warn against creating alarming situations and point to developments in other Nordic countries. They believe that they have been waiting a long time enough about the changes and that Sweden is behind. The changes in the law have not led to “gender chaos” in the statistics or abuse in changing rooms in neighboring countries, several writers wrote in a discussion post in The Express.

It comes in response to it other reader posts from heavyweights in both politics and medicine, who warn against the bill. Self the crime prevention council doubts and fears that criminals will take advantage of the fact that it will be easier to change identities.

A number of research reports and books about gender change among young people is an important background to the change in mood, among other things. In 2022, it will lead to the Swedish Health Directorate he made a U-turn. They came with power sharpen in the use of hormone therapy in children. The reason is that there is uncertainty about the benefits and the possible negative effects.

My mind changed

The new bill makes a distinction between medical and legal gender reassignment.

The Social Democrats have long been keen on the change and in fact wanted a lower age limit of 16 to legally change sex.

But the head of the Social Democratic women’s group now says no. Annika Strandhäll herself suggested that it should be easier to change gender when she was Minister for Social Affairs in 2018.

Now she is turning the other way and wants to put everything on hold until we know more.

– We have seen an increase in teenage girls with gender dysphoria of around 1,500 per cent in the last ten years. There is also a clear co-adaptation with different types of psychiatric conditions or diagnoses, such as autism, she said Swedish daily newspaper.