SV considers it urgent. Ap will only open an investigation.

Everyone has been there. When you check the little gender box in forms, applications, contracts. Man or woman. The proposal of a third The legal category of gender has been mentioned several times. Now SV has proposed it again, but is receiving little support from his colleagues on the Health and Care Committee.

SV’s representative proposal means that the Storting orders the government to present a proposal for a third legal gender category.

The second point of the proposal is to publicly apologize to trans people who have undergone irreversible sterilization. This point proposes a separate compensation scheme for those affected. None of the proposals received a majority in committee.

MDG and Rødt announced that they would support the proposal.

Nicholas Wilkinson (SV) is one of the representatives behind the proposal and is disappointed at the lack of support.

– I am disappointed that Norway is lagging behind and does not have a law that can apply to everyone. Several countries have a legal third gender, such as Denmark, Canada, India and Australia, but not Norway.

The subject will finally be adopted by the Storting on February 25.

Labor wants more information

Labor wants to consider a third legal gender category, but wants it to be investigated first. This is why the committee members did not support the SV proposal, but rather suggested that the government should consider it.

Wilkinson says there is an urgent need for such a law.

– We don’t need a report on what we should think. We should learn from other countries that have introduced it. This was important for those involved. We now need a bill so that the Storting can adopt it.

In a 2015 legal gender report, “Right to Right Gender – Health for All Genders,” the expert group wrote that a third legal gender category should be studied in more detail.

The following year, the government advocated a change in the law. This adopted change means that one can now change gender without requiring sterilization.

Luca Espseth, from the FRI association, believes that it is great that people want to look into the possibility of introducing a third legal gender, but that it is urgent and these processes must actually be started.

– This proposal has already been presented to the Storting several times, but the politicians have taken no action and have not opened any investigations. This time, they need to follow through, he said.

The Conservative Party has not taken a position

Right-wing health policy spokesperson Sveinung Stensland believes that the question of a third gender category needs to mature a little. They have to make a few rounds within the party before they can say anything about their position.

– Neither the government nor the Conservative Party have decided to establish a third gender category. We need a more thorough process than a representative proposal facilitates in such a demanding case, Stensland says.

Stensland says health care for transgender people is a priority for the Conservative Party.

– New treatment guidelines were introduced, more decentralized treatment offers and a report was presented on how we can improve care provision for trans people.

– Public apologies are the responsibility of the government

Stensland says the Storting is not the place to decide who should receive a public apology.

– A public apology is an important decision that belongs to the government. Such a practice adopted in the Storting would be something new.

The Labor Party also does not wish to advocate a public apology.

– We believe that the previous practice is clearly discriminatory. We hope that cases submitted for consideration for compensation will be taken with the utmost seriousness. We will follow these cases and the way they are handled, but we will not do so, calling for a general and public apology today, says Hege Haukeland Liadal (Ap). She sits on the health and care committee.

The majority of the commission also does not believe that a separate compensation system for trans people is necessary. On the other hand, they are in favor of asking the government to ensure that trans people can have their cases handled using the compensation solutions that exist today.

SV does not know if these arrangements are sufficient.