Trans Marches in Paris and Barcelona

The European trans community is mobilising this week-end with demonstrations in Paris and Barcelona.

The French demonstrators on Saturday will rally under the slogan "Resis'Trans!". This will be the latest edition of ExisTrans', a day of action organised by a collection of activist organisations, which has been taking place in Paris every first week-end of October for the past 11 years.

The organisation Guerrilla Travolaka is behind the Spanish event which includes an arts festival on Saturday. The Spanish rallying cry on Sunday will be "No More Gender Disphoria".

Both marches however will focus on demanding that the World Health Organisation remove "Gender Identity Disorder" from the International Classification of Illnesses (Homosexuality was removed from this list in 1992) and the complete depathologisation of trans identities.

The demonstrators have great hopes that the upcoming summit of the World Health Organisation scheduled for June 2008 will make the requested changes.

Other demands include better financial support from health services for hormones and surgery, better administrative and legal processes for the change of identity, the continuation of parental rights over children born before the transition, and the recognision of the rights and needs of Trans asylum seekers. This changes need to take place at the national level.

The UK seems more advanced in this respect with some financial support from the NHS and the Gender Recognition Act 2004. As of September 2007, more than 2220 people have applied for legal recognition under the Act, 97.5% of which have been successfully approved.

See Also:
Unfortunately, no website in English about the events seems to be available.
ExisTrans 2007 (French)
Guerrilla Travolaka (Catalan)
Existrans organisers forum (French)
About Existrans (French)
World Health Organisation
Press for Change