Transgender people will not be allowed under the knife

The State Duma on Wednesday unanimously adopted in the first reading an inter-factional bill banning sex reassignment not related to the treatment of congenital physical anomalies. Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin called the document a gift for the Day of the Medical Worker, although the deputies criticized Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko who came to the meeting for the uncertainty of the position of his department. The parliamentarians intend to adopt the law as a whole before the end of the spring session.

Bill was developed on behalf of Vyacheslav Volodin and submitted at the end of May signed by 369 deputies, including the speaker himself and the leaders of all factions. The authors proposed to recognize as invalid the norm of the law “On acts of civil status”, which allows making changes to documents if a person has provided a medical certificate of gender reassignment. And the law “On the fundamentals of protecting the health of citizens” will be supplemented with a new article 45.1 “Prohibition of changing the sex of a person”: health workers “are prohibited from carrying out medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person, including the formation of primary and (or) secondary sexual characteristics of a person of the other sex “. Such operations are allowed only by decision of the medical commission in connection with the treatment of congenital physiological anomalies of sex formation in children.

Vice speaker Pyotr Tolstoy (United Russia), who delivered a report on the project, said that the presence in our laws of “rudimentary norms” that allow gender reassignment is “the result of the work of some officials in the international space, for example, the World Health Organization with its classifications of diseases that are now recognized by inertia by the government of the Russian Federation. “In these classifications, all perversions are the norm,” United Russia informed.

Recallthe reason for the development of the bill was the decision of the WHO to exclude transgender people from the list of mental disorders, after which the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation made changes to the regulations to simplify the change of sex in documents, and psychologists were excluded from the commissions that make decisions on the change of sex.

Mr. Tolstoy said that the deputies received a “very emotional conclusion from the Ministry of Health” on this bill, and sarcastically recounted the contents of the letter.

“If the bill is passed, a stalemate will arise in which people whose gender is officially recognized by medical workers as not corresponding to the sex indicated in the passport will not be able, poor, to bring their passport data into line with the reality that has developed in their head, and this can cause ethical and social problems, as well as lead to … What do you think? To increase suicides in the country,” he said. As previously reported by “Kommersant”, on the eve of the first reading, the transpeople community sent an appeal to parliamentarians and the Ministry of Health with a request to reject the bill due to possible negative consequences for citizens, whom it would actually deprive of the necessary medical care. However, Mikhail Murashko hastened to assure the deputies that the Ministry of Health “supports the inadmissibility of sex change based only on the patient’s desire.” He noted that the decision on surgical intervention in such cases “should be based only on the basis of high-level consultations.”

The chairman of the committee on family affairs, Nina Ostanina (KPRF), was not convinced. “Neither your written response, nor today’s comment brought clarity. I have concerns that you want to soften this bill. It was with your permission, with the order, that everything began. You essentially ratified the WHO Convention with your signature. Who authorized you to do this?” – attacked the Deputy Minister. He modestly replied that he supported the measures proposed in the bill.

Pyotr Tolstoy emphasized that the possibility of a sex change should be left only for the treatment of anomalies in children: “If you leave this loophole for adults, go through it, as Mikhail Albertovich said (Murashko.— “b”), high-level councils will go crowds, including those who want to avoid military service.”

“Given the anguish and pain in your soul you report, I understand that there is a fifth column that does not want the adoption of this law,” Nikolay Kolomeytsev (KPRF) assessed the emotions of Vice Speaker, proposing to adopt the bill immediately as a whole.

But Speaker Volodin reminded that this is a joint document, which means that after the first reading it must be sent to the regions to receive amendments. However, if the Council of the Duma supports such a decision, it can be done according to a shortened procedure, giving the subjects 15 days to submit amendments. This will allow the adoption of the bill during the spring session.

Anatoly Wasserman (Fair Russia – For Truth) asked how the Ministry of Health is developing research on “psychological and psychiatric methods to bring a person’s idea of ​​his gender in line with reality.” The minister replied that several research centers are engaged in this, but on behalf of the president, this area will receive additional elaboration. And on the proposal of Nikolai Nikolaev (United Russia) to impose a moratorium on gender reassignment operations until the adoption of the law in the third reading, Mr. Murashko responded with a promise to work out this issue with the legal service of the ministry.

At the end of the discussion, Vyacheslav Volodin, just in case, asked the minister if he had changed his initial position, but Mikhail Murashko avoided a direct answer, asking the deputies to congratulate his colleagues on the Day of the Medical Worker, which this year falls on June 18.

The bill under consideration is just a gift to doctors for their professional holiday, a speaker was immediately found: “There will be a healthy society. What else is needed for a doctor? You have to rejoice!”

As a result, 365 deputies voted in favor of the bill, there were no votes against and abstentions.

Ksenia Veretennikova