Italy is the fifth country in the world to allow trans people to change gender without a doctor! #pinkbits

A BITE OUT OF OUR PINK WORLD www.pinkinourlives.com

Italy joins Argentina, Denmark, Malta and Ireland in acknowledging the right of trans people to self-determine their own identity. Italy acknowledges now that trans people are allowed to identify as trans without medical, surgery or genital intervention.

The ruling in Italy’s highest court sets a new precedent for those who wish to legally change their sex, but don’t feel the need for surgery. In its ruling, the court stated that the desire to unite the body and the psyche was the result of “a hard fought individual psychological battle and medical treatments”. For the court, these medical treatments do not necessarily mean a full sex change operation, but can include hormonal therapy and modifications to secondary sexual organs.

The case was supported throughout by Bilotta, Gracis and Genova, members of Rete Lenford (the Lenford network), a group of lawyers who work to promote LGBGTI rights in Italy. “We are proud to have worked and contributed to the ending of this unacceptable violation of the mental and physical integrity of transgender people”.

In the UK, gender records can be changed in some circumstances without medical intervention: however, the issue remains subject to state regulation.

Vladimir Luxuria, a former member of the Italian Parliament and the first openly trans parliamentarian in Europe is one of the famous trans people in Italy. Luxuria has been a strong advocate for gay rights and a participant in events promoting equality for homosexuals. She helped organize Italy’s first gay pride festival in 1994 and continued her activism throughout her tenure as a politician; in May 2007, she took part in the second Muscovite gay pride parade.She used her prominence in Italian politics once elected as a platform for advocating gay rights. In the lead-up to her election, Luxuria made gay rights an issue of her campaign and felt herself to be a representative of the LGBT community, saying, “We don’t want privileges – we want our rights.”

Although Luxuria lives exclusively as a female, she has not undergone sex change surgery and she remains legally male. She has stated on occasion that she perceives herself as neither male nor female, but now she will be recognized officially as a woman without a sex-change.