The State Duma unanimously adopted in the second reading a bill completely banning "sex change" (this is the wording used by the authorities to describe a transgender transition) through a surgical operation and amending a passport; the exception was congenital anomalies in children. After the President's signature, the amendments will be made to the laws "On Health Protection" and "On Civil Status Acts." The adoption of the bill in the second reading was delayed due to "consultations" with experts. The final third reading will take place tomorrow, 14 July.
By the second reading, the bill has been tightened: it now assumes that the marriage of people will be annulled if one of the spouses made the transition. Trans people will also be banned from adopting children, and gender-affirmative surgeries and hormone therapy will also be banned.
The document also prohibits registry offices from making changes to documents based on medical certificates for gender reassignment. This means that trans persons will not be able to change the "sex" column in their passport.
Previously, according to the law, in order to change the gender marker and carry out the necessary operations, trans people had to receive a certificate with a diagnosis of transsexualism. On its basis, it was possible to change the birth certificate, and then the passport. Also, after receiving a certificate, trans people could receive medical assistance: hormone therapy and referral for surgery.
Permission for the treatment of congenital physiological anomalies of sex formation in children will need to be obtained from medical commissions of state institutions. The list of institutions will be approved by the Russian government.
At the same time, a “sex change” document issued abroad will not be the basis for making changes to the birth record in the registry office, said Larisa Krykanova, head of the department for state registration of acts of civil status of the department for legal assistance and interaction with the judiciary of the Ministry of Justice.
Earlier, MP Nikolai Nikolaev (United Russia) stated during a press approach that "sex change is a myth." He claims that you can change the psyche, behavior, but "sex cannot be changed." He also called the transition "part of a larger anti-family ideology aimed at reducing the birth rate" and cited the amounts allegedly received by the "transgender industry". Where the deputy took the given data from, he did not specify, and did not refer to any official statistics.
“Only in our country, one transgender person in his life, 20-30 years, brings the transgender industry about 120-150 thousand dollars. That is, three thousand people who officially changed their passports over these 5 years will bring $450 million to the transindustry. The sooner we ban the industry, the more lives we will save. Sex change is a myth. You can change the psyche, behavior, but the gender cannot be changed. This is what nature has given us."
Experts working with LGBTQ+ people explained to The Insider that the State Duma is using the incorrect and transphobic term “sex reassignment”, and also wants to adopt the toughest version of the bill, which will ban absolutely everything for transgender people: from changing documents to surgical procedures. As a result, this will lead to the emergence of an underground surgical market and an increase in cases of depression.
LGBT lawyer Maxim Olenichev previously told The Insider that the state wants to completely ban transgender transition in Russia. He noted that in this case, thousands of transgender people would not be able to change the gender marker in their documents. The institution of transgender transition exists in all developed countries, since if a person feels himself in another body, he may experience gender dysphoria that can lead to suicide or the inability to adapt in modern society, Olenichev emphasized.
“The state, passing this bill, discriminates against transgender people, trying to make them invisible. But this is impossible, because they are born, and in any case, they need the ability to change documents at their request. Its absence will lead to further growth of discrimination and stigmatization of transgender people in Russia and restriction of their rights.”
Earlier, Kommersant, citing the head of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children Nina Ostanina, wrote that in the near future the State Duma would be amended to prohibit transgender transition and the official change of the gender marker in documents without a surgical operation. For the first time, Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuichenko spoke about this initiative on April 24, when he proposed to amend the law on acts of civil status and "On the basics of protecting the health of citizens." In December 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a total ban on "propaganda" of non-traditional sexual relations and transgender transition. According to him, for the "propaganda" of LGBT people, pedophilia and gender reassignment among individuals of any age, a fine of 50,000 to 800,000 rubles can be imposed.