Transgender EuroStudy – Legal Survey and Focus ... - ILGA Europe

21 April 2008
working as prostitutes on the streets of Paris, and the alternative – a slightly mad pathetic individual who
must not succeed because they are different from other people. It is only now, in 2008, that trans people
can say they have managed to open a few doors and started to negotiate for change in Europe.
Finally, for change to be real, a sort of social experiment must take place, as it did in the mid
1970s when the EU passed the Directive on Gender. In the late 1970s the EU made sure that
throughout Europe women knew and claimed their rights; similar action is needed for trans people to
be aware of their rights and remedies to discrimination. Trans people’s social networks are efficient and
reach far into the corners of Europe. Trans people firstly deserve their rights because they are human
persons, and secondly because they do no harm to anyone by their desire to be a member of their
preferred sex. The costs to society are minimal; the claim that trans health care is costly, and at the expense
of other ‘real’ cases of need, is bogus if one takes on board the full costs. The UK trans campaigning group,
Press for Change, has done extensive research on the cost to the State of gender reassignment treatments.
In order for a trans woman to undergo these treatments including vaginoplasty would be around €10,000,
and the cost of treatment including mastectomy and hysterectomy for a trans man would be around
£8,000 31 . Compared with the costs of lifelong psychiatric care which, assuming monthly sessions and a
short in-patient stay every two years, would cost around £4000 per annum, gender reassignment surgeries
are a bargain. It should also be noted that psychiatric care would need to be continued for a very long
time, as there has never been a published report, in the psychiatric or psychotherapeutic literature, of
transsexualism or transgenderism being cured.
Recommendations
The European Commission as guardian of the treaties should ensure that EU directives on
equal treatment of women and men and gender equality are implemented to include
protection of trans people against discrimination.
Legal actions based on EU directives need to be revisited to ensure they are accessible by
ordinary people in a manner which is quick and at minimum cost particularly when Member
States have not implemented EU directives. 32
Funding is needed to ensure that trans people throughout Europe are made aware of their
rights contained in the EU directives and the European Convention on Human Rights.
States need to provide gender reassignment treatment without excessive restrictions.
31
See Press For Change:
Healthcare at
http://www.pfc.org.uk
/node/613.
32
Francovich v Republic
of Italy ECJ (1995) ICR
722, ECJ Cases C-6 and
9/90 (also reported at
[1992] IRLR 84 and
[1993] 2 CMLR 66).