Signal & Brus

🇸🇪 Svenska · 🇬🇧 English · 🇪🇸 Español

Why should the state register us as legal men or women at all? I think we should abolish legal sex. The law should be sex-neutral: the same rights, duties and protection for everyone. When the body genuinely matters, we should deal with it according to the specific situation.

Expressen’s reporting on Lily, who is serving a life sentence for murdering a child, brings the issue to the fore. The article’s public presentation describes a transfer to the women’s prison in Ystad following a change of legal sex, as well as warnings from staff and inmates about sexual harassment and insecurity. These are allegations that must be taken seriously and investigated. A single case does not tell us how transgender people generally behave. It does, however, raise the question of what should determine prison placement.

Safety should carry more weight than an entry in a register.

Let the Swedish Prison and Probation Service assess placement

The Prison and Probation Service should have a clear mandate to decide where a person is placed on the basis of anatomy, criminal history, behaviour, risks and protection needs. Both the safety of fellow inmates and the safety of the person concerned must be considered. A change in the population register should not decide the matter on its own.

Even today, Chapter 2, Section 2 of the Swedish Prison Act allows exceptions to the main rule of separating the sexes when there are special grounds and the placement is otherwise appropriate. My point is therefore both to use the discretion that already exists and to make the rules less dependent on legal sex categories.

In some cases, a special unit for transgender people could be a solution if there is a genuine need and it provides a safe and reasonable environment. In other cases, temporary separation may be necessary because of a specific security risk. Isolation should not, however, follow automatically from someone being transgender. It is an intrusive measure that must be necessary, proportionate and reviewed.

Changing rooms also require practical rules

The same basic idea should apply at public swimming pools. The operator should be able to decide which communal changing room a visitor uses, based on clear rules concerning nudity and privacy. My starting point is simple: if someone has a penis, the men’s changing room is the natural one, regardless of how the person identifies.

Where possible, private changing rooms are a useful addition for anyone who does not want to be seen naked or feels uncomfortable in a communal room. That option can help many people, for a variety of reasons.

This is my proposal for how the rules should be designed. Abolishing legal sex would not automatically give swimming pools a free hand under current legislation. The legal change would also need to give operators clear and legally secure scope to protect visitors’ privacy.

Málaga: a viral trend need not become a legal category

Then there is the phenomenon of therians, people who describe an identification or deep connection with animals. The EFE news agency reported on the phenomenon in Spain in February 2026. Those interviewed describe, among other things, a spiritual connection and know that they are human.

In Málaga, an announced gathering attracted hundreds of curious onlookers. But according to local reporting by El Español, it mainly became a viral spectacle involving masked people and spectators.

As far as I am concerned, anyone who wants to dress like a cat, grow their nails or eat cat food may do so. But we do not need prisons for cats or changing rooms for dogs. The examples concern different phenomena; the common question of principle is where personal identity ceases to determine society’s practical organisation.

Equal rights, decisions based on real needs

Abolishing legal sex does not mean that the body becomes irrelevant. Healthcare needs relevant medical information. We also need to be able to track discrimination and inequality. Such needs can be met with fit-for-purpose data without allowing a general legal sex label to determine people’s rights.

Everyone should be free to live, dress and call themselves whatever they wish. At the same time, the safety and privacy of other people must carry significant weight in shared environments.

Abolish legal sex. Make the law sex-neutral and let concrete needs guide practical decisions.

This translation was prepared with AI. The original featured illustration was generated with AI.