Sweden Simplifies Legal Gender Change Amid Heated Debate

From July 1, 2025, it will become easier to change legal gender under the new Gender Identity Act.

The new law concerns the gender indicated in personal identification numbers, where the second-to-last digit shows the legal gender. An even number represents female, and an odd number represents male.

Compared to the previous law, the age limit for changing gender is lowered from 18 to 16 years, with parental consent. A gender dysphoria diagnosis is no longer required, only a healthcare contact.

In April last year, the law was passed, but there was intense debate until the end, with two parliament members from the Social Democrats and Moderates breaking party lines to vote against the proposal.

Initial Proposal in 2018

The law is based on a proposal from the previous Social Democrat government, which followed another scrapped proposal from 2018. The age reduction was initially proposed to 12 years, which faced heavy criticism and was changed to the current 16 years.

Since then, criticism has been voiced from within the Social Democrats, as well as from the Christian Democrats and Sweden Democrats, and even internal criticism within the Moderates. The main criticism has been that the change can be made by minors and that a gender dysphoria diagnosis is not required. Critics have also pointed out that gender dysphoria diagnoses have increased in recent years, and the reasons are not entirely clear.

Advocates like RFSL and RFSL Youth have described the law as a partial victory. They have instead opposed the continued requirement for healthcare contact to change legal gender, arguing that individual self-identification should be fully decisive. In the rest of the Nordic countries, only an application to the relevant authority is required.

Sterilization Requirement

To pass the law, the Moderates and Liberals chose an unusual maneuver after government negotiations broke down. The parties instead sought support from the opposition. The issue was never part of the Tidö Agreement, so the Sweden Democrats, who believe the law should be repealed, were not part of the negotiations.

The old law was enacted in the 1970s, and until 2013, sterilization was required to change legal gender. Since then, over 500 people have received 225,000 kronor in compensation from the state. The law focused on individuals who wanted to change legal gender also undergoing gender-confirming hormone treatment and surgery.

Newly, the old law is divided into two independent laws. The second law concerns the surgical process, where the most significant change is that it no longer requires approval from the National Board of Health and Welfare.