The French transgender community are celebrating after legislation was passed this week allowing people to legally change their gender without undergoing sterilization, reports Newsweek.
Since 2014, Denmark, Malta and Ireland have allowed people to legally change their gender by simply informing authorities, without any medical or state intervention.
The practice of involuntary sterilization has been widely condemned as a human-rights violation, including by the United Nations, and the ILGA-Europe network of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups welcomed the change in French law, voted on Thursday, which came after a two-year campaign.
France’s new legal gender recognition law, which does not require sterilization or the undergoing of medical procedures, comes at a time when a group of European nations has strengthened transgender people’s rights, according to Reuters.