Participants in the 18th annual Jerusalem Pride parade in June 2019. (MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)
Two years after the World Health Organization and 11 years after France, Israel has finally agreed that being trans is not a mental disorder.
New guidelines, drafted by Israel’s health ministry after three years of consulting with LGBT+ and trans organisations, set out how hospitals and healthcare facilities must treat transgender people.
The guidance directs that hospitals and healthcare facilities must have at least one staff member trained in trans awareness, use a trans person’s correct pronouns regardless of the gender on their official documents, and to provide unisex facilities where possible while allowing trans people to use gendered spaces in accordance with their gender identity.
Tel Aviv Pride 2019 in Israel. (Amir Levy/Getty)
Trans people in Israel should be given legal recognition regardless of whether they have pursued gender-affirming surgery, a government task force packed with top officials has recommended.
A joint committee between the Justice and Social Welfare Ministries suggested a raft of new policies as part of its ongoing efforts to tackle the “exhausting, frustrating and bureaucratic” hurdles the trans community faces.
Deputy attorney general Dina Zilber and deputy director general of the Social Affairs Ministry Avi Motola wrote in an interim report that trans folk should have the right to change gender markers and names on government-issued documents via self-declaration.