Self-ID implementation in The Netherlands looks set to be scrapped !

[fromorbit]

Congrats to all the amazing women and sensible men who campaigned to stop this.

Mr Menno has more details:
https://x.com/MrMennoTweets/status/1909702277994000821
BREAKING: Self-ID in The Netherlands looks set to be scrapped (finally!) following a vote today in the Dutch parliament. It’s a huge relief 😮‍💨

It’s been quite a journey!

START

2014
The law on changing the sex marker on your birth certificate (we don’t have GRCs like the U.K.) was amended to remove the requirement for sterilisisation surgery (hysterectomy for females, castration and ‘vaginoplasty’ for males). This change was made after lobbying from the international ‘trans’ lobby that had accused the Dutch government of breaching the human rights of ‘trans’ people

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2014-2019
Intense lobbying to make it changing your sex marker easier: dropping the minimum age limit (16), and the need for an expert (doctor or psychologist) to provide a statement, the need to request the change in your place of birth

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2019
The proposed bill to code ‘self-id’ into the Dutch constitution was drafted by the then Justice Minister and put out for public consultation in Dec 2019

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2021

The bill was tabled in Parliament May 2021

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2022

The bill was debated in Parliament in September 2022 and scheduled for another debate but this kept getting postponed

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2023

In July 2023 the Dutch coalition government collapsed (over asylum policies) and became a caretaker government only

In September 2023 the proposed ‘Self-ID’ bill was declared ‘controversial’ by a parliamentary commission for Justice & Safety. This stopped the bill from being able to progress under the caretaker government, meaning only a new government would be able to take it forward

November 2023: right-wing party PVV wins the national elections. Talks begin to form a coalition government

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2024

April: Parliament votes to scrap the proposed ‘Self-ID’ bill. The then minister for Legal Protection refused to do so and is backed up by the caretaker government

The new coalition government is sworn in July 2024

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2025

April: Parliament votes to withdraw the ‘Self-ID’ bill. The government has one month to scrap it

So it remains to be seen if the current government will actually scrap it - they’ve got one month to do so

I’m super relieved that the Dutch haven’t followed in Germany’s footsteps where ‘Self-ID’ became law in Nov 2024, just before the German government collapsed

WHAT NOW?

While this is good news (for now) the Dutch constitution is a hot mess as it does not treat ‘gender identity’ as being separate from sex like in the U.K. Instead, ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender expression’ fall under ‘sex’ (like in Australia). Women and girls have not had the right to single-sex spaces for years, and lesbians cannot exclude men who are legally recognised as female. A change to the Dutch constitution is long so that magical gender feelz and fetishes don’t override sex-based rights is long overdue

A conversion therapy ban was first debated in February this year and will get a second debate - potentially criminalising exploratory therapy. Members of Parliament have raised concerns about youth being pushed into the trap of ‘gender affirmation’ (great to hear it being called a ‘trap’ in Parliament)

Re puberty blockers and youth gender clinics in the Netherlands: Parliament has called for research to be done but this will take a while. The main Dutch youth gender clinic has rejected the Cass Review, and has recently argued that the only effectiveness’ of puberty blockers that needs to be proven is whether they block puberty or not (not if it leads to better mental health or reduction in ‘gender dysphoria’)

So… not quite out of the woods, but go and breathe a small sigh of relief and even have a glass of 🍷☺️

It’s one step in the right direction ✊

Interesting isn't it that it never works. It was forced in, on the principle that people will kick off a bit because stupid bigots, but once they have to accept it everything will settle down and be lovely, and everyone will realise it was all fine.

Instead of which repeatedly country after country are demonstrating that it's created absolute bloody havoc, it doesn't work for women because men doing what they want involves removing and destroying women's rights and spaces and equalities, and the general public get increasingly fed up as the realities and harms mount up. Not to mention that their democracies and policies and establishments were basically hacked to achieve it.

Destruction tested.

This struck me:

The main Dutch youth gender clinic has rejected the Cass Review, and has recently argued that the only effectiveness’ of puberty blockers that needs to be proven is whether they block puberty or not (not if it leads to better mental health or reduction in ‘gender dysphoria’)

Of course! This is the clinic that developed the idea of using puberty blockers, why would they want a clinically valid test of their effectiveness?

I mean, their entire motivation for the use of blockers was clinically unmotivated — they found adult transsexuals weren’t any happier after they medically “changed sex”, and the clinic decided (did not determine, just decided) that this was because their patients didn’t “pass” well enough as the opposite sex. And then they hypothesised that this was because the patients had gone through puberty in their own sex. So of course the obvious thing to do was to find some children and trans them before they went through puberty. But let’s not bother to look at all the previous evidence of what happens to children who were given puberty blockers for things like eg “height differences” (ie girls who might possibly grow up too tall — spoiler alert, nothing good happens).

They are the walking, talking epitome of, yes you could do that, but do you really think you should? And they will not admit that they got it wrong. I have so much rage towards them.

Encouraging news! Hoping for a ripple effect to similarly demented countries (mentioning no names but you know who you are Ireland, Spain and Germany).

This sounds like a very positive step in the right direction 😄

I like the comment from DutchLGB at the bottom. 😂👍 Good for them.