The legal status of transgender people varies significantly around the world. Some countries have enacted laws protecting the rights of transgender individuals, but others have criminalized their gender identity or expression. In many cases, transgender individuals face discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, and other areas of life. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity is not consistent with the sex they were assigned at birth and also with the gender role that is associated with that sex. They may have, or may intend to establish, a new gender status that accords with their gender identity. Transsexual is generally considered a subset of transgender,Transgender Rights (2006, ), edited by Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, Shannon MinterThomas E. Bevan, The Psychobiology of Transsexualism and Transgenderism (2014, ), page 42: "The term transsexual was introduced by Cauldwell (1949) and popularized by Harry Benjamin (1966) ... . The term transgender was coined by John Oliven (1965) and popularized by various transgender people who pioneered the concept and practice of transgenderism. It is sometimes said that Virginia Prince (1976) popularized the term, but history shows that many transgender people advocated the use of this term much more than Prince. The adjective transgendered should not be used ... . Transsexuals constitute a subset of transgender people."A. C. Alegria, Transgender identity and health care: Implications for psychosocial and physical evaluation, in the Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, volume 23, issue 4 (2011), pages 175–182: "Transgender, Umbrella term for persons who do not conform to gender norms in their identity and/or behavior (Meyerowitz, 2002). Transsexual, Subset of transgenderism; persons who feel discordance between natal sex and identity (Meyerowitz, 2002)." but some transsexual people reject being labelled transgender.Valentine, David. Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category, Duke University, 2007Stryker, Susan. Introduction. In Stryker and S. Whittle (Eds.), The Transgender Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, 2006. 1–17Kelley Winters, "Gender Madness in American Psychiatry, essays from the struggle for dignity, 2008, p. 198. "Some Transsexual individuals also identify with the broader transgender community; others do not."
Globally, most legal jurisdictions recognize the two traditional gender identities and social roles, man and woman, but tend to exclude any other gender identities and expressions. People assigned male at birth are usually legally recognized as men, and people assigned female at birth are usually legally recognized as women, in jurisdictions that distinguish between the two; however, there are some countries which recognize, by law, a third gender. That third gender is often associated with being nonbinary. There is now a greater understanding of the breadth of variation outside the typical categories of "man" and "woman", and many self-descriptions are now entering the literature, including pangender, genderqueer, polygender, and agender. Medically and socially, the term "transsexualism" is being replaced with gender incongruence, or gender dysphoria, and terms such as transgender people, trans men, and trans women, and non-binary are replacing the category of transsexual people.
Many of the issues regarding transgender rights are generally considered a part of family law, especially the issues of marriage and the question of a transgender person benefiting from a partner's insurance or social security. The degree of legal recognition provided to transgender people varies widely throughout the world. Many countries now legally recognize sex reassignments by permitting a change of legal gender on an individual's birth certificate. Many transsexual people have permanent surgery to change their body, gender-affirming surgery or semi-permanently change their body by hormonal means, transgender hormone therapy. The legal status of such healthcare varies. In many countries, some of these modifications are required for legal recognition. In a few, the legal aspects are directly tied to health care; i.e. the same bodies or doctors decide whether a person can move forward in their treatment and the subsequent processes automatically incorporate both matters. In others, these medical procedures are illegal.
The Yogyakarta Principles (2006) and Yogyakarta +10 (2017) affirm the right to self-determination and protection from medical abuses for trans and gender-diverse people. According to one study, opposition to transgender rights was correlated with a preference for obedience and conformity regardless of partisan affiliation. In some jurisdictions, transgender people (who are considered non-transsexual) can benefit from the legal recognition given to transsexual people. In some countries, an explicit medical diagnosis of "transsexualism" is (at least formally) necessary. In others, a diagnosis of "gender dysphoria", or simply the fact that one has established a non-conforming gender role, can be sufficient for some or all of the legal recognition available. The DSM-5 recognizes gender dysphoria as an official diagnosis. Not all transgender or transsexual people feel gender dysphoria or gender incongruence, but in many countries a diagnosis is required for legal recognition, if transgender people are legally recognized at all.
Legislative efforts for the recognition of gender identity
National level Country Date Gender identity/expression legislation Upper house Lower house Head of state Finaloutcome Yes No Yes No Germany Gesetz über die Änderung der Vornamen und die Feststellung der Geschlechtszugehörigkeit in besonderen Fällen Passed Passed Signed Yes ItalyApril 1982Norme in materia di rettificazione di attribuzione di sesso.PassedPassedSigned Yes Japan Act on Special Cases in Handling Gender for People with Gender Identity Disorder Passed Passed Signed Yes South Africa Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act, 2003 Passed Passed Signed Yes United Kingdom Gender Recognition Act 155 57 357 48 Signed Yes Spain Gender identity law Passed Passed Signed Yes Uruguay Gender identity law 20 0 51 2 Signed Yes Argentina Gender identity law 55 0 167 17 Signed Yes India January 2014 The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016PassedPassedSigned Yes Denmark Gender Recognition law colspan=2 align=center Passed Signed Yes Malta Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act colspan=2 align=center Passed Signed Yes Colombia Gender recognition law (Order 1227) Passed Passed Signed Yes Ireland Gender Recognition Act Passed Passed Signed Yes Poland September 2015 Gender identity law Passed 252 158 Vetoed No Vietnam Transgender Rights Law colspan=2 align=center Passed Signed Yes Ecuador Civil Registration Act (gender identity recognition on legal documents) colspan=2 align=center 82 1 Signed Yes BoliviaMay 2016 Gender identity law Passed Passed Signed Yes Norway Gender identity law colspan=2 align=center 79 13 Signed Yes France Gender identity law (abolishing sterilization) Passed Passed Signed Yes Canada June 2017 An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (Bill C-16) Passed Passed Signed Yes Belgium Gender identity law (abolishing sterilization) colspan=2 align=center Passed Signed Yes Greece December 2017 Gender identity law (abolishing sterilization) colspan=2 align=center 171 114 Signed Yes Pakistan May 2018 Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill Passed Passed Signed Yes Portugal July 2018 Gender identity law (expansion: self-determination) colspan=2 align=center 109106Signed Yes Luxembourg September 2018 Gender identity law (abolishing sterilization) colspan=2 align=center 573Signed Yes Uruguay October 2018 Integral gender identity law (expansion: self-determination)PassedPassedSigned Yes Chile November 2018 Gender identity law 26 14 9546Signed Yes Iceland December 2019 Gender autonomy law colspan=2 align=center 45 0 Signed Yes Spain February 2023 Gender identity law (expansion: self-determination) colspan=2 align=center Passed Signed Yes Scotland Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill colspan=2 align=center 8639Blocked No Germany April 2024 Gender identity law (expansion: self-determination) colspan=2 align=center 374251 Signed Yes Sweden April 2024 Gender identity law (expansion) colspan=2 align=center 234 94 Signed Yes Australia October 2024 Change of sex for all 8 jurisdictions within Australia, without any surgery and sterilization Passed Passed Signed Yes Thailand Unknown Gender identity law colspan=2 align=center Pending Brazil Unknown Gender identity law colspan=2 align=center Pending Costa Rica Unknown Gender identity recognition and equality before the law colspan=2 align=center Pending El Salvador Unknown Gender identity law colspan=2 align=center Pending Peru Unknown Gender identity law colspan=2 align=center Pending
Legislative efforts against the recognition of gender identity
National level Country Date Gender identity/expression legislation Upper house Lower house Head of state Finaloutcome Yes No Yes No Hungary On Amendments to Certain Administrative Laws and the Free Transfer of Property (T/9934), Article 33 colspan=2 align=center 134 56 Signed Yes Slovakia Birth Number Act (Bill No. 301/1995) colspan=2 align=center colspan=2 align=center align=center align=center Russia 164 0 386 0 Signed Yes United States "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" (Executive Order 14168) colspan=2 align=center colspan=2 align=center Signed align=center
Africa Botswana
In September 2017, the Botswana High Court ruled that the refusal of the Registrar of National Registration to change a transgender man's gender marker was "unreasonable and violated his constitutional rights to dignity, privacy, freedom of expression, equal protection of the law, freedom from discrimination and freedom from inhumane and degrading treatment". LGBT activists celebrated the ruling, describing it as a great victory. At first, the Botswana government announced it would appeal the ruling, but decided against it in December, supplying the trans man in question with a new identity document that reflects his gender identity. A similar case, where a transgender woman sought to change her gender marker to female, was heard in December 2017. The High Court ruled that the Government must recognise her gender identity. She dedicated her victory to "every single trans diverse person in Botswana".
Egypt
Transgender people face significant existing societal stigma against the LGBT+ community in Egypt, a conservative Muslim nation. The procedure for gender reassignment is not illegal in Egypt; however, the complication and stigmatisation has put transgender people through mental and physical assault along with torture, as per Human Rights Watch. Reportedly, the statistics of criminal acts committed against the transgender community have not been available because they have had a history of going unreported.
Kenya In August 2025, the High Court of Kenya ruled in favor of transgender rights, and ruled that certain rights had been violated against a specific transgender person, "including freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, equality and non-discrimination, dignity, freedom and security of the person, and privacy were unconstitutional." The court ordered the national parliament to implement "the enactment of the Transgender Protection Rights Act, or, in the alternative, the amendments of the Intersex Persons Bill 2024".
South Africa