From Iceland – Iceland abolishes fees for changing names and gender marks
Yesterday, Iceland took a significant step forward when the Althingi voted by abolishing the ISK 9,000 fee that is imposed for changing a name or gender mark in the National Register. The change enters into force immediately but takes one to two weeks to complete.
As reported, shortly after Iceland welcomed the fact that it had finally taken the important step of allowing non-traditional people to register their gender under the third mark – X, rather than just M or F – it turned out that the fee for it was 9,000 ISK.
This was objected to, among other things, by Trans Iceland, which pointed out the financial difficulties that trans people in Iceland are already facing.
The Pirate Party Andrés Ingi Jónsson called this fee a “trans tax” and encouraged other MPs to change the law on gender in 2019 and pointed out that one line in the law, which specified changes to the law on fees collected by the Treasury. , now authorizes the government to collect fees for changing the name.
The proposed amendment received widespread support, including from the National Registry itself, and was finally passed into law early in the morning of June 13, without protest.
The law enters into force at the end of parliament and after the new round of police has been formally approved by the President of Iceland, a process that should not take more than a week or two.
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