Cabinet will not withdraw bill making it easier to change gender registration

Outgoing minister Franc Weerwind (legal protection) does not intend to withdraw his bill to expand the Transgender law, which the lower house of Dutch parliament, the Tweede Kamer, has asked him to do. A motion from NSC and SGP requesting the bill be withdrawn was approved by a small majority (73-70).

The minister had advised against the request earlier, and he is sticking with that opinion. “I have informed that I cannot or will not carry out this motion,” he said. He also added that he is not planning on resigning.

“As I shared with the [Tweede] Kamer earlier, I find the motion improper regarding substance and process. This bill from my predecessor, Sander Dekker, was well thought out and lowers the threshold for trans people to be themselves. Of course, it is up to everyone in the Kamer to be for or against this bill, but it should be after a debate,” Weerwind added.

The bill would ensure that transgender people can change their sexuality on their birth certificate without a specialist's opinion. The age limit of at least 16 to change your sexuality would also be dropped with the bill.

Parliament debated the subject in 2022, and the debate was meant to continue at a later date. However, after the fall of the Cabinet, the bill was declared controversial so that it could be discussed again under a new Cabinet.

Nicolien van Vroonhoven (NSC) and Diederik van Dijk (SGP) handed in the motion to cancel the bill in a debate about a different subject. This was to the surprise and outrage of parties like GroenLinks-PvdA, SP, PvdD, CDA, and Volt. Wieke Paulusma (D66) spoke of a “non-collegiate, careless, and unpleasant way of working and certainly not a sign of governance.”

The parties in the formation talks are also not in agreement: the VVD has shared that they disagree with the actions of the NSC and SGP, which have been supported by PVV and BBB politicians.

Weerwind also strongly criticized the way opponents of the bill are trying to get rid of it before the debate has even been completed. “It is surprising that the parties who manifest as a constitutional conscience of the Kamer want to torpedo a bill process in this way. The Kamer has asked me questions, and I want to answer them. This is the only way justice can be done to the questions surrounding this bill, and only in this way can the legislative process be completed carefully.”

The Council of Ministers still needs to respond to the motion. They can choose to support the minister in his refusal or not. A Cabinet can often put a motion aside. Parties in the Tweede Kamer can then place a motion in of distrust if they believe the subject is important enough.

The Transgender Network said that it is “careless and disrespectful,” along with calling it “disgraceful” that the politicians in The Hague have voted to withdraw the Transgender bill. They see this as the Netherlands “dropping transgender people hard,” the network added.

Network chair Femke Verdegem called it “political scoring over the backs of trans people.” Verdegem blames the NSC, “a party that thinks that good governance is important,” for “waving away normal procedures” and not discussing the matter with transgender people and relevant organizations in the last few months.