The Netherlands hardens stance as transgender law voted down

Those three parties are in coalition talks with the pro-business VVD, which voted not to withdraw the bill and was the dominant party in the last government. Meanwhile, 70 MPs voted against ditching the bill.

The caretaker government will now have to decide what to do about the motion brought by NSC, which was formed just before the election, and the Reformed Political Party.

The outgoing minister in the caretaker government had called the motion “not proper” in a parliamentary debate last month.

“We are absolutely not against changing sex,”  Nicolien van Vroonhoven, the NSC MP who submitted the motion, said earlier this month.

“But it should not be too easy either. There are real risks to women’s safety. In England, for example, men are suddenly given access to women’s prisons, and that is not something we should want.”

The VVD said it had expressed concerns over the law but disagreed with bringing the motion at this stage.

Other MPs argued it would make more sense for the bill to be properly debated later and preferably when a new government was in place.

The vote comes after a survey in January revealed hardening attitudes towards transgender people in the Netherlands, which has traditionally been among the most liberal European countries on trans rights.

Only about a quarter agreed with the statement: “People should be able to change their passport from the age of 16 without a statement from an expert” in the last Dutch national voter survey.