Please push against Transmenschen | The Lucerne newspaper

Henry Hohmann with Stefanie Hetjens, President of Transgender Networks, in front of the Bundeshaus. (Photo: Peter Schneider / Keystone (Bern, March 7, 2018))

If you want to change your gender and your name, you should be able to do it more easily in the future. If this were the responsibility of the Federal Council, it would no longer be necessary to move from "man" to "woman" or vice versa, a simple declaration of civil status would suffice. The recipients of the innovation are on the one hand trans people – ie people whose gender identity differs from the kind attributed to birth. And on the other hand, intersex people, that is to say people whose sex can not be clearly determined. The national counselor of the SVP of Thurgau, Verena Herzog, was disturbed by the planned simplification .

While the referral is underway, she introduced a motion during the summer session. Herzog calls for a differentiation between trans and intersex people. For these, a simpler change at the entrance of the genre would be appropriate "because the ambiguity of biological sex is actually and understandably a problem". For transgender people, on the other hand, the current decision is correct by court decision

"Intersexuals become instrumentalised"

Herzog not only requires different levels of obstacles for intersex and transgender people. She also talks about the fact that intersexual concerns would be exploited by transgender organizations. Daniela Truffer, of the organization Zwischengeschlecht.org, shares this view: "Intersexuality in Bern is indeed coherently received for the concerns of homosexuals, bisexuals and trans people, as well as for gender policies. . Our main concern, however, falls to the water.

Zwischengeschlecht.org has been campaigning for years for a ban on unnecessary genital surgery without consent in infants and toddlers with ambiguous gender characteristics. The Federal Council's statement that such decisive sex operations in healthy children have been conducted recently, so that day would no longer be practiced, that is false, says Truffer. In the fight against "genital mutilation", SVP had never received support, so Duke's initiative is "somewhat hypocritical". Henry Hohmann of Transgender Network Switzerland states: "The non-bureaucratic change of gender is not the most important topic for us, and it is not even more important to improve the health care of people. trans people. "Hohmann says," The bill is positive. It makes life easier for those affected – and among them, intersex people who want to change their official gender. In the eyes of the SVP politician Herzog, however, the proposed innovation brings arbitrariness, legal uncertainty and the danger of abuse. If the obstacles to gender change in the future are so deep, men could for example escape military service in this way. However, the Federal Council states in its report that civilian police officers should not accept careless explanations.

According to Henry Hohmann, frivolous changes in the sexes almost never occur in reality: "Behind that, the knowledge of the concerned sex assigned to birth is not the good one." The change in the official sex is at the end of a long process, says Hohmann.

"I do not feel that Frau Herzog knows what trans identity means." So, the attitude implicitly resonates with the attitude that trans people are suffering from a mental illness. At the latest with the recent decision of the World Health Organization (WHO), this attitude is no longer up-to-date – the WHO has classified transsexuality for a few days no longer under mental disorders. but in the chapter on sexual health.

Politicians CVP and FDP on the line SVP

In addition to many colleagues of the party, the national counsel SVP Herzog also knows parliamentarians CVP and FDP by their side. One of the signatories of this initiative is the Ticino national councilor Marco Romano. While a simplification for intersex people is still understandable, rich for trans people, the status quo, says the CVP politician. The official statements of the parties are still pending, the consultation will last until the end of September.