Colombia takes another step towards LGBT rights

Colombia took another step towards recognising the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community with the passing of a new legislation that would facilitate civil registration procedures for transsexuals wanting to change their sex legally, Spanish news agency Efe reported.

In a historic event on Tuesday, a dozen people changed the legal status of their identity cards substituting the gender with which they were born with the one by which they feel represented.

The gender dysphoria diagnosis by a psychiatrist, mandatory until now, has been done away with.

All that was needed was for them to appear before a public notary and express their willingness to undergo the change.

Before the approval of the new rule, this procedure could only be done by legal channels and took approximately three years and involved a high cost besides the psychiatric evaluation.

In a huge contrast, the procedure now takes 15 minutes and costs some $4.

A statement by the Colombian ministry of justice said that the new legislation allowed transgender people to resolve the inconsistencies between the gender on the identity card and their sexual identity.

The Colombian Constitutional Court is also considering the possibility of approving adoption by same-sex couples.