Examples of legal and policy good practices on trans equality and inclusion in Europe
While discrimination on the basis of ‘gender reassignment’ is prohibited through European Court of Justice case-law and European Council gender equality Directives, there is no clear EU obligation to list gender identity and gender expression as grounds of anti-discrimination in national law.
In fact, 16 Member States interpret ‘gender identity’ to fall within the wider definition of ‘sex’, ‘sexual identity’ or [less appropriately] ‘sexual orientation’. In another 11 Member States, however, there is great legal uncertainty as there is no express articulation against discrimination based on gender identity (FRA, 2009).
ILGA-Europe and TGEU highlighted this gap during the ‘The European Conference on New Ways in Overcoming Gender Stereotypes’ organized by the Czech Presidency of the European Council (27 May 2009, Prague) and identified two good practices from Scotland and Sweden on how gender identity and gender expression equality may be progressed in national legislation.
