AG to assist transgenders in gaining official recognition
Avichai Mandelblit's deputy instructs authorities in the Interior Ministry to announce planned acceleration of issuing official recognition of people who have undergone transgender operations; 'It is completely unacceptable and an urgent solution is needed.'
The Attorney General’s Office recently instituted the the Population and Immigration Authority in the Interior Ministry to immediately notify the public that it intends to amend its procedures that will provide assistance to transgenders by expediting the issuing of appropriate documentation to officially register their gender change.
The instruction came on the heels of a discussion that took place earlier this month at Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s office on the matter, during which participants discovered that transgenders who had undergone serious medical procedures and whose their behavior and external appearance matched their new gender are unable to officially change their sex.
“It is completely unacceptable and an urgent solution is needed,” Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber wrote on the matter. “A person has the right to express his gender identity both in the public domain and in his day-to-day human interaction. These things go to the root of respect for a human being and its core significance.”
Zliber also stressed that one of the central difficulties facing the transgender community was their inability to alter their genders at the population registry. This difficulty, she said, “causes a serious and humiliating effect on the person’s dignity.”
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender movement (LGBT) claims that anyone who has undergone a sex change operation has not received the documentation from the Interior Ministry required to receive new official recognition.
“The reality that has come about is one in which transgenders who have undergone medical procedures to change their sex are unable to officially change their gender since at this time there is no public certificate that can satisfy the requirements of the Population Authority's procedure for change,” read a statement issued by the attorney general. “This is a problematic situation that harms the dignity of these transgender people.”
In the new instructions, it was noted that people from the Committees from the Health Ministry are the relevant professional officials charged with determining the gender of people in the country.
With this in mind, the the attorney general decided to refer all people who have undergone medical procedures to change their genders to a truncated process before the chairman of the Surgery Committee or to another relevant professional at one of the two committees attached to the Health Ministry.
The accelerated process will include a referral to the relevant official, in conjunction with the issuing of an expert opinion by the attending private doctor confirming that the individual has changed his or her gender and the documents attest to the fact that an operation did take place.
Using the documents provided by the doctor, the chairperson of the committee can issue a public certificate, which will be validated through an approval of the opinion, in a quick format on the basis of handwritten material only.
