New rules on gender recognition mean a lot to transgender people – and to conservatives

The new gender reassignment protocol, which is still supposed to replace a 1981 regulation, has been suspended by the Health Ministry.

LGBT+ organisations in Slovakia welcome the new gender reassignment protocol, but conservative groups are demanding that it be scrapped completely. The Health Ministry has now suspended it.
LGBT+ organisations in Slovakia welcome the new gender reassignment protocol, but conservative groups are demanding that it be scrapped completely. The Health Ministry has now suspended it. (Source: Robin Rayne)

In early April this year, Health Minister Vladimír Lengvarský signed and published Slovakia’s first comprehensive gender reassignment protocol, establishing guidelines for gender recognition. Despite receiving a broad welcome from health professionals and the transgender community, the move has attracted numerous transphobic comments and some conservatives have been calling on Lengvarský to withdraw the document.

SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

The protocol, which is perceived as somewhat ground-breaking by activists, no longer lists surgical sterilisation as a precondition for any change in the legal recognition of someone’s gender. That precondition was criticised by Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities Zuzana Stavrovská in December 2021, as it had been five years earlier by the then public defender of rights, Mária Patakyová. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2017 that forced sterilisation violates human rights.

The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.sk
Subscribe now for full access

I already have subscription - Sign in

Subscription provides you with:
  • Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk
  • Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail)
  • PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper, The Slovak Spectator, emailed directly to you
  • Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk

Top stories

Stock image.

Twice as many Ukrainians work in Slovakia now than before the Russian invasion.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


SkryťClose ad