Colombia will have to guarantee gender affirmation for minors

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Colombia’s Ministry of Health has one year to issue a clinical practice guideline to ensure that when a transgender person wants a gender affirmation procedure, they can do so without hindrance, even if they are a minor.

The Constitutional Court has given this deadline to the State to order its guidelines and is doing so after ruling on a lawsuit by a 16-year-old boy. Claudio, as he is called in the sentence that ruled in his favor, sought a hormone replacement therapy treatment for more than nine months but was denied because of his age.

Claudio’s case served the court to resolve several aspects regarding medical care for transgender people.

The magistrates made it clear that the right to gender identity, founded on human dignity and the free development of personality, must be protected regardless of age, but without requiring proof other than the individual’s definition of themselves.

“The recognition and protection of the manifestations of gender identity are independent of biological sex and sexual orientation and cannot be subordinated to physical, medical or psychological tests that prove, endorse or endorse that identity constructed by each subject,” warns the court.

Claudio took his complaint to the Constitutional Court -through a guardianship- because his process was plagued by practices contrary to his rights. Before denying him, because he was 16 years old, the procedure he was seeking, he was required to undergo some tests to confirm whether his intention to undergo the treatment was due to a hormonal disorder.

He had to prove that his physical and mental health were in good condition and that his family supported his decision. In the sentence, his parents tell how they attended every session of general medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics and psychology in order to start their son’s hormone treatment.

“He is in an optimal mental condition to begin treatment and authorizes the appointment with endocrinology,” states the psychiatrist’s opinion, before what they hoped would be the beginning of therapy. But the clinic that treated him did not allow it.

The Constitutional Court reiterates in its ruling that “any obstacle that prevents a person from being who they want to be and build an autonomous life plan or that restricts their right to manifest their gender identity is a violation of their fundamental rights”.

The court recalls that its jurisprudence has indicated that the right to health has a close relationship with the right to sexual and gender identity, especially when it comes to transgender people.

The court explains that any change in the characteristics of the sex registered at birth will require different procedures that the health system must provide. The justices have also ruled that, although transgender people suffer the same medical concerns as the rest of the population, they face health issues unique to them as members of a minority group.

“It is inescapable to recognize that this transition manifests itself in the emotional, mental and physical realms at the moment of self-identification, which requires appropriate and timely health care,” the ruling states.

The Constitutional Court has declared that the clinic that refused to attend the patient’s request violated his rights to gender identity, health, human dignity, and free development of personality and requests that no age conditions be imposed for the provision of gender affirmation hormone treatments to minors.

The court also ordered the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to issue, within one year, the clinical practice guidelines, with their respective protocols, for the comprehensive health care of transgender persons and, particularly, for the provision of gender affirmation medical procedures, regardless of age. Claudio had to go through more than six specialists and was ultimately denied the procedure. The ruling notes that his process before the health care system was “tortuous and wearing” and caused him anxiety and depression.

“It is clear that minors have the right to gender identity, which includes the right to access gender-affirming medical treatment. This recognition also corresponds with the fact that the moment of that self-recognition of gender identity occurs from an early age. For this reason, the protection of this identity is not subject to reaching a certain age, nor is there any scientific evidence to support it”, warns the court.

With information from El País

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