The government wants to modernize the gender affiliation law, but the bill that came in 2018 was harshly criticized by the law council.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Social Affairs therefore sent a new proposal for consultation.
It contains two new laws - one on certain surgical procedures in the genitals and one on changing the gender that appears in the population register.
"Biological body important"
In Sunday evening's Agenda, Clara Berglund, Secretary General of Sweden's Women's Lobby, which organizes 47 women's associations, and Member of Parliament Annika Strandhäll (S) met in a discussion about the new bill.
Sweden's Women's Lobby is afraid that the proposal will counteract gender equality work in Sweden.
- I understand that the self-perceived gender identity is very important for this group and that it should be recognized, but for most people in society, I think, and for us who work with gender equality, the biological body is important, says Clara Berglund.
She clarifies:
- This is a change in what gender is.
From the fact that it is about what the body is, we move towards a more relativistic attitude.
Think the proposal is good
Annika Strandhäll, who is also chairman of S-women, says that she will vote yes to the proposal in the Riksdag.
- It is about a very small group that are affected, for them this is extremely important, she says.
- I think this proposal is well balanced, I think it is quite good.
But Strandhäll agrees that there are some clouds of unrest, and shares the view about the possible consequences of going in a direction "where we somehow completely remove women and men".
- Then we would turn our backs completely on gender equality work.
The Green Party says yes to the bill, the Sweden Democrats clearly no while the other parliamentary parties want to wait for the Law Council's assessment before they take a final position, shows a survey conducted by SVT's Agenda.
See more of the discussion in the clip above, and the entire Agenda in SVT Play.