The bill provides, in particular, for the replacement of an identity card indicating the new name and gender of the transsexual. To obtain a new document, those wishing to change gender will have to provide a certificate from a psychiatrist and an endocrinologist confirming that the corresponding surgical operation has been performed.
The authors of the bill report that in Belgium, one in 16 thousand men potentially wants to become a woman. As for women, one in 40 thousand Belgian women wants to change gender to male.
According to experts, in Belgium, where same-sex marriages have been legally permitted since the summer of 2003, gender reassignment surgeries have been performed on 600 men and 250 women.