Czech lawmakers have launched a proposal to remove the sterilisation requirement for legal gender transition, but progress to lift society-wide prejudices is slow. The Czech Republic is one of the few European Union countries to continue to require a sterilisation procedure before a trans person can legally change their gender. This, despite the European Court of Human Rights officially declaring such state-imposed requirements to be a form torture. Leaders of the country were largely undisturbed by this comment, believing that legalising registered partnerships – as well as an interrupted attempt to legalise same-sex marriage – were more important to the LGBT community.