According to the PA news agency, the highly controversial bill was approved after a long debate on Thursday afternoon with a majority of 86 votes, 39 MPs opposed it.
Trans persons or transgender people are people who do not feel at home with the gender they were assigned at birth.
The project of Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party SNP caused fierce controversy. Critics such as Harry Potter author JK Rowling fear that men could take advantage of the simplified rules to enter areas reserved for women, such as women’s changing rooms or toilets, for sexual motives. The dispute did not spare Sturgeon’s own party either. Proponents and opponents of the bill had demonstrated in Edinburgh the week before and in the Scottish Regional Parliament.
A vote was actually scheduled for Wednesday, but a plethora of amendments threw the schedule upside down. The new regulation eliminates the requirement for a medical report as a condition for changing the gender entry. The minimum age for such an application will be lowered from 18 to 16 years. The time a trans person must have lived in their new gender role is being reduced from two years to three months.
The Gender Recognition Reform Act was regarded as the most controversial legislative project since the creation of the Scottish Regional Parliament nearly 24 years ago.
(SDA)