Margarida Balseiro Lopes, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, admitted this Tuesday, April 14, the existence of a technical analysis of the bills on the gender identity law and committed to sending the document to parliament by the end of the day.
In response to questions from socialist deputy Isabel Moreira, minister Margarida Balseiro Lopes denied that the government had requested a study on the impact of the PSD, CDS and Chega bills, but admitted that the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG) carried out an analysis of the projects.
“Whenever there is a legislative initiative being submitted to the Assembly of the Republic, there is a formal and automatic procedure that involves asking the competent entities to be able to analyze it technically so that the Government is equipped with the technical analysis necessary to monitor the legislative process”, he explained.
He added, during the procedural hearing at the parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, that this also happened in relation to the bills to repeal or amend law 38/2018, on the self-determination of gender identity, and which were generally approved in the Assembly of the Republic.
Margarida Balseiro Lopes admitted to having asked the CIG for a technical analysis, but denied that the Government had hidden the document, arguing that “documents and opinions linked to Government selection processes are, as a rule, reserved and do not integrate the concept of open access administrative documents”.
“There is a separation of powers between the legislative power and the administrative power and there is no general rule that obliges public administration services to provide opinions for all processes of the Assembly of the Republic”, he maintained, admitting, however, that there is “a logic of institutional cooperation”.
In this sense, he made a commitment to “even today, send the Commission [de Assuntos Constitucionais, Direitos, Liberdades e Garantias] the technical analysis that the CIG sent to the cabinet”.
Some parties with parliamentary seats even requested an urgent hearing from Minister Balseiro Lopes because the CIG analysis had never been published.
The bills approved for discussion in the specialty on March 20 are the responsibility of the PSD, Chega and CDS, and aim to revoke or amend Law No. 38/2018, which enshrines the self-determination of gender identity and expression.
The PSD proposed the repeal of the 2018 legislation and the return to the 2011 regime, reintroducing mandatory medical validation for changing name and gender in the civil registry.
Chega intends to change the name and gender change procedures, invoking the “protection of children and young people”, while the CDS-PP defends the prohibition of puberty blockers and hormonal therapies in children under 18 years of age, within the scope of the treatment of gender dysphoria.
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