Europe’s chickens are coming to home to roost. And Sweden is the latest European country to be punished for past decisions that contradict the new leftist dogma. The country is offering payouts to transsexuals who were forcibly sterilized beginning in the 1970s.
Sweden’s Gender Recognition Act of 1972 required those who wanted to change their gender to undergo sexual sterilization. Interestingly, as progressive as many believe Sweden to be, the law was enforced until as late as 2013. It was declared unconstitutional and a violation of the EU’s Convention on Human Rights by Sweden’s Administrative Court of Appeals. Since that ruling in 2013, trans-activists have been seeking payment from the Swedish government for those who were forcibly sterilized.
However, it should be pointed out that, technically, Sweden never forced anyone to be sterilized. Those who chose to deny science were required to be sterilized. They were not required to make that initial anti-science choice. Regardless, eugenics is troubling and much of Europe has an inglorious history with eugenics. In fact, this isn’t the first time that Sweden has confronted its eugenics past. According to The Local:
A total of 63,000 people, mostly women, were sterilized in Sweden from 1935 to 1975 based on eugenics and the desire to weed out “inferiors” to create a stronger Swedish race.
The Scandinavian country, which remained officially neutral throughout World War II, forced mentally disabled people, epileptics and people with alleged social problems to undergo sterilization against their will, or pressured them to agree to the operation in order to be allowed to marry or be released from mental institutions.
The victims of that eugenics program, true victims who truly had no choice, were compensated when, “In 1999, Sweden agreed to compensate the victims of forced sterilization, offering each individual up to 175,000 kronor.”
As The Local points out, the 1999 ruling did not change the law for transsexuals, “who were required to be infertile before the authorities could change their official documents to reflect their post-transition gender. In practice, that meant most transsexual Swedes went through with full reassignment surgery.”
In 2016, Sweden approved the payouts, to begin in 2018. With the payouts set to begin on May 1, trans-activists are claiming victory.
“We have strived for this since 2013 when the requirement of sterilization to change one’s legal gender was abolished. Money can’t undo the harm of unwillingly losing your reproductive abilities, but the monetary compensation is an important step for the state to make amends to all those subjected to this treatment,” RFSL’s trans and intersex spokesperson Emelie Mire Åsell said in a statement.
For some trans-activists, the payouts are only a partial victory, though.
“Through this whole process RFSL has demanded that the state should, in addition to the monetary compensation, apologize to the whole trans community. Now we hope that the Swedish government will decide to organize a ceremony where a proper apology can be given. Then we can put this truly dark part of Swedish history behind us,” said Magnus Kolsjö, acting president of the organization.
When the payouts begin later this spring, Sweden is expecting around 700 individuals to receive 225,000 kroners apiece. That amounts to around $27,300.
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