Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If indeed there is going to be a requirement for medical evaluation, then I would support the amendments tabled by Senator Zappone that it should include the GP as the person who has the most regular contact with a young person. From a young person's viewpoint, it will also be a much more supportive environment if the GP is somebody with whom he or she has had a professional relationship over an extended period, rather than seeing a stranger who is a specialist.

However, as I said on Second Stage, I strongly object to including a medical evaluation. In other jurisdictions, the transgender person is simply required to make a self-declaration. That is currently the case in Argentina and Denmark, while Malta is currently going towards self-declaration also. Requiring a medical diagnosis at all is, unfortunately and uncomfortably, similar to how we treated homosexual people in this country for a long time when homosexuality was treated as an illness.

We can argue what is, or is not, involved in requiring transgender people to go through a medical process. It is not clear from the words "medical" and "examination" what exactly that will entail and how intrusive the process will be before one can get somebody to sign the appropriate papers. It is unnecessarily stigmatising, however.

The process that is already provided for is restrictive and impractical because it only includes a small number of professionals, rather than general practitioners. I also think it is unnecessary. We have therefore tabled an amendment that gets rid of the medical evaluation altogether and ensures that we will trust people's own judgment instead. Transgender people themselves know better than anybody else what their preferred gender is and who they really are. We should listen to them and trust them instead of adopting a patronising approach, asking "Are you sure?", that seems to be consistent throughout this legislation.

Self-declaration should be sufficient and, if not, I would agree with at least changing the medical criteria and professionals involved to make the process as supportive as one can within the current framework.