Norwegian directorate presents investigation of third gender
A symbol indicates a gender neutral toilet in the Congress Center in Switzerland. Photo EPA, Alessandro Della Valle
Northern Europe
What are the options for introducing a third legal gender? That is the question of the Norwegian government. Bufdir has presented an answer.
Bufdir, the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs, proposes a number of measures the government can take to ‘recognise non-binary persons in Norwegian legislation”, Dagen reports. On Thursday, it presented the outcome of its investigation to Minister Anette Trettebergstuen from Culture and Equality, who resigned on Friday.
Minister Anette Trettebergstuen resigned this Friday, the day after she received the report from Bufdir. She did so after news broke that she had appointed several close friends in important functions.
The Directorate considered three ways to introduce this third legal gender. The first one is that the option of X is added to the current choices of M and F in identification documents. The second option would be the creation of a third legal gender category in the National Register, together with a review of current legislation that has links to gender. The third option is preparing a national guide to recognise gender diversity.
Security
Bufdir advises that legal recognition would be best to give this group of people a better sense of security and better living conditions. Therefore, they plead for the second option, which is also the most expensive measure, as all legislation that contains gender-specific terminology must be reviewed to see if there is a need for changes.
Former Minister Trettebergstuen said on Thursday to have received Bufdir's study and promises a follow-up, she indicated in a press release.
“Everyone must live safe and free lives. Then it cannot be the case that many non-binary people have a worse quality of life than the rest of the population and feel that they have an unclear legal situation”, she added.
Related Articles
