Portugal’s parliament moves to roll back gender autonomy rights in majority vote
Left-wing political parties and advocacy groups have campaigned against the preliminary vote in Portugal, calling upon the European Union to take action
By Aaron Sugg
Portugal’s parliament held a preliminary vote last week (20 March) approving three bills that would overhaul the country’s gender recognition law.
The proposed changes to the current 2018 gender identity law would require transgender people to obtain medical certification to change their legal gender, while also banning minors from changing their gender marker and prohibiting access to puberty blockers for under-18s.
The bills now move to parliamentary committees for review before they can become law. For now, gender change based on self-determination law remains in force.
Trans people aged 16 and over would need clinical or psychiatric approval to change their gender marker
As part of the medical certification bill, trans people aged 16 and over would need clinical or psychiatric approval to change their legal name and or gender marker.
Left-wing political parties and advocacy groups have campaigned against the preliminary vote in Portugal, calling upon the European Union to take action.
Leading human rights organisation Outright International is one of those to have condemned the bills becoming law.
“They face a coordinated legislative attack on their dignity” – Outright International’s Rikki Nathanson condemning Portugal’s gender bills
In a statement, Outright International’s Rikki Nathanson said: “Outright International stands in full solidarity with trans and intersex people in Portugal as they face a coordinated legislative attack on their dignity, bodily autonomy, and fundamental human rights.”
In the official statement, Nathanson outlined the impact on trans people living in Portugal:
If adopted, these initiatives would:
* Revoke self-determined legal gender recognition and require a medical diagnosis of “gender identity disorder” for trans people, replacing a simple administrative procedure with a pathologising, outdated model.
* Ban legal recognition of name and gender identity for young people aged 16–18, and remove existing protections for children under 16, nonbinary people, and non‑citizens whose social name and gender currently enjoy limited recognition even without changes to legal documents.
* Repeal affirmative, non‑discriminatory measures in schools, including recognition of chosen names and LGBTI+ awareness initiatives, directly endangering the safety and well‑being of trans children and adolescents.
* Prohibit medically sound procedures such as puberty blockers for trans adolescents, contrary to established medical practice grounded in case‑by‑case assessment, best interests of the child, and informed consent.
* Authorise medically unnecessary and irreversible interventions on intersex children, in direct contradiction to international medical and human rights standards and to Portugal’s current prohibition of such practices.
It is now up to the European Union, the Council of Europe, and Portuguese authorities and political parties to take action.
A similar case has occurred across India in recent days, causing activists to protest a new bill from the Indian Union government that would roll back trans rights to self-determine their gender.