Pulling the transgender law was a mistake, NSC politician says

NSC MP Willem Koops acknowledged on Tuesday, during an election debate hosted by LGBTQ+ group COC, that retracting the expansion of the transgender law before it was fully debated in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, was a “mistake.” Despite this, NSC would still have opposed the law.

The proposed amendment would have simplified the process for transgender individuals to change their gender on their passports, eliminating the need for an expert declaration and removing the minimum age of 16.

NSC member Nicolien van Vroonhoven, along with the SGP, submitted a motion to withdraw the bill midway through its parliamentary consideration. Backed by a right-wing majority, the motion stopped the Tweede Kamer from further debate or a vote on the proposal.

Koops declined to explain why NSC chose not to finish the debate. “I wasn’t part of those discussions, as I wasn’t in the Tweede Kamer when they happened,” he said.

D66 leader Rob Jetten said at the Amsterdam debate, “I remember how proud I felt when Lisa van Ginneken became the first trans woman elected to the Dutch Parliament. But I also felt so sad when parliament, through a fucking motion, chose not to continue with a bill.” Although parliamentary consideration of the proposal had started, it was never completed.

Koops responded that his intention is to stand up for minorities. “I’m not going to explain to you the internal discussions we had about that ‘fucking motion.’”

CDA and VVD acknowledged that they did not agree with every part of the law but would have preferred it to be fully debated. VVD representative Thom van Campen said, “I cannot understand why the parliamentary process for this bill was never completed.”

Other parties at the “rainbow debate,” GroenLinks-PvdA, D66, SP, and the Partij voor de Dieren, voiced support for expanding the transgender law. They did not rule out reintroducing the bill in the future.