Love Georg Elfvelin doesn't believe he should be forced to be sterilized in order to obtain a change in his documentation from F to M. Imagine that.
Last year I wrote some about the antiquated Swedish requirement that requires compulsory sterilization of people undergoing gender reassignment. One party, the Christian Democrats, have gathered enough support from the other center-right parties to
stop an attempt to abolish the existing legal requirement.
It's too bad that the government and prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt haven't taken into account that there is wide support in the Riksdag to scrap the [sterilization] requirement.
--Social Democrat MP Lena Hallengren, deputy chair of the Riksdag social committee
Current law, written in 1972, requires that any person receiving a sex change in Sweden must be 18 years of age, be a Swedish citizen, be sterilized and unmarried.
The last two requirements stick in the craw.
It's a macabre law. It's not dignified that in 2012 someone should be forcibly sterilized. Other countries don't have demands like this and it hasn't presented an legal complications.
--Green Party MP Agneta Luttrop
It's important that we stand by the precautionary principle and don't rush into legislation. This question needs to be looked at more closely.
--Christian Democrat party leader Göran Hägglund
Translation: Not on my watch.
The Riksförbundet för homosexuellas, bisexuellas och transpersoners rättigheter (Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and transgender Rights) chastised the decision to "study the situation", saying that "government stability" is being given priority over human rights.
It's extremely remarkable that a democracy like Sweden now believes that this must be examined further.
--RFSL chair Ulrika Westerlund
The National Board of Health and Welfare has already studied the issue, proposing changes to the law in 2010.
To now want to investigate the matter yet again can't be seen as anything else than that those who have ordered the inquiry want to reach a different conclusion for political reasons,
That's the way government studies generally work: Here's the conclusion we wish. Fill in the necessary hypotheses that will lead to it being drawn.
Human Rights Watch calls the current situation "a requirement which clearly runs against principles of human rights and human dignity". So they've written a stern letter.
You can participate. There is a petition.