by Rex Wockner
International News Briefs
Austria's Administrative High Court has struck down a law that blocked recognition of male-to-female transsexuals' new gender unless an individual's penis had been removed.
"Mandatory sex-change surgery today is outdated and not scientific state-of-the-art anymore," the GLBT group Rechtskomitee Lambda said in a statement. "On the contrary, it is understood as a human rights violation."
The case involved an individual who had become female via hormone therapy and cosmetic procedures, but was denied issuance of official documents recognizing her new sex.
"Every time she has to show one of her documents – driver's license, ID card, passport, residential registration form, birth certificate, etc. – she has to expose her transsexuality and is coerced into (an) embarrassing and often degrading outing," Lambda said.
