President vetoes bill simplifying post-op bureaucracy for transsexuals
24/01/2011
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submitted by ILGA-Europe
Original source: http://www.theportugalnews.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=1095-30
President Cavaco Silva has vetoed a bill simplifying the bureaucratic procedure for transsexuals to change their names and gender at civil registries, sending it back to the Portuguese parliament.
The conservative president announced his veto last Thursday in the Algarve, where he was campaigning for a second term in the 23 January election.
Cavaco Silva said legal “specialists” had advised him the law, which was approved by parliament’s leftist majority on 26 November, was “poorly made” and riddled with “grave deficiencies”.
State Justice Secretary José Magalhães lamented the veto, saying it was a “pity” that once “everything is resolved clinically” a transsexual must still face “a hyper-bureaucratic system”.
A spokesperson for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual) activist group Pink Panthers, Sérgio Vitorino, described the veto as “electioneering”, telling Lusa News Agency Cavaco Silva’s stance came as “no great surprise” and was meant to “please the rightist electorate”. TPN/Lusa
President Cavaco Silva has vetoed a bill simplifying the bureaucratic procedure for transsexuals to change their names and gender at civil registries, sending it back to the Portuguese parliament.
The conservative president announced his veto last Thursday in the Algarve, where he was campaigning for a second term in the 23 January election.
Cavaco Silva said legal “specialists” had advised him the law, which was approved by parliament’s leftist majority on 26 November, was “poorly made” and riddled with “grave deficiencies”.
State Justice Secretary José Magalhães lamented the veto, saying it was a “pity” that once “everything is resolved clinically” a transsexual must still face “a hyper-bureaucratic system”.
A spokesperson for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual) activist group Pink Panthers, Sérgio Vitorino, described the veto as “electioneering”, telling Lusa News Agency Cavaco Silva’s stance came as “no great surprise” and was meant to “please the rightist electorate”. TPN/Lusa
