The Spanish deputies approved this Thursday in first reading a bill that allows changing gender from the age of 16. The bill, if it is finally approved, will make Spain one of the few countries that allows gender self-determination through a simple administrative declaration.
Changing the gender on identity documents could soon become a simple administrative formality in Spain. This Thursday, December 22, Spanish deputies approved a controversial bill at first reading to make it easier for transsexual people to change their gender.
The bill, which is a project of the left-wing Podemos party, a minority partner in the Pedro Sánchez government coalition, received the support of 188 deputies, while 150 voted against and seven abstained, including former socialist vice president Carmen Calvo. .
If, as expected, it is definitively approved by the Senate in the coming weeks, the “trans law” will allow Spain to join the few countries in the world that allow gender self-determination through a simple administrative declaration. In Europe, Denmark was the first country to grant this right to transgender people in 2014.
a simple date
Specifically, this text should allow trans people to change their name and gender on their identity documents by simply making an appointment with the Administration. This will be done without having to provide medical reports or proof of two years of hormonal treatment, as is currently the case with adults in the country.
“This law settles a historical debt of the State with transsexual people” and “depathologizes” them, the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, standard bearer of the norm, told the deputies this Wednesday.
“Trans women are women,” insisted the leader of Podemos, who denounced “transphobia.”
Called the “trans law”, this text will also allow young people between the ages of 14 and 16 to freely change their gender in the Civil Registry, provided they are accompanied in the process by their legal guardians. Minors between the ages of 12 and 14 will have to receive a green light from the court. Currently, all persons up to the age of 18 must obtain this judicial authorization.
In all cases, there is a period of three months between the submission of the application and its validation by the applicant so that they can confirm the decision to change gender.
divided feminists
Approved by the Council of Ministers more than a year ago, the bill caused a split between Podemos, which made it a pillar of its government action and demanded its express approval, and the Socialists, who tried to modify the text, in vain.
It has also deeply divided the feminist movement, between supporters of Irene Montero and historical activists, who are at war against the text.
“Reclaiming gender over biological sex (…) seems to me a setback” for women, said Carmen Calvo, former number two in the Sánchez government, in an interview published by the newspaper ‘El Mundo’ in September.
“The State must respond to transsexual people, but (biological) sex is not voluntary or optional,” he added, pointing out the legal risks caused by this law.
These longtime feminists fear that males who self-identify as women could participate in women’s sports competitions or be incarcerated in women’s prisons, for example.
Echoing these fears, the Socialists tabled an amendment to extend the requirement for judicial authorization to young people between the ages of 14 and 16. But finally it was rejected.
“The greatest defeat of the Socialist Party”
The law “symbolizes the biggest legislative defeat of the Socialist Party before Podemos” since the formation of the Executive at the beginning of 2020, wrote ‘El Mundo’, while the newspaper ‘El País’ referred to “one of the texts that has created the most tensions within the coalition government.
Carla Antonelli, an LGBTQI+ activist and the first trans woman elected to a regional deputy in Spain, left the Socialist Party in October to protest her party’s will to amend the bill.
“We have seen how part of the Socialist Party and the feminist movement have gone from defending the rights of the trans minority to relentlessly boycotting our existence,” she accused in an opinion article published by ‘El País’ this Thursday.
Among other provisions, the bill approved on Thursday also prohibits conversion therapies aimed at changing the sexual orientation of LGBTQI+ people, with fines of up to 150,000 euros.
Similar legislation passed in Scotland
The Scottish local Parliament also approved a similar law on Thursday aimed at facilitating the transition of trans people, authorized from the age of 16, after three days of heated debate.
Approved without surprises by 86 votes in favor and 39 against, due to the majority held by the independence government (SNP), the text suppresses the requirement of a medical and psychiatric diagnosis when requesting a gender recognition certificate.
It reduces the period during which an applicant must live in their acquired gender from two years to three months, with an additional reflection period of three months.
Thus, the certificate can be obtained after six months, according to the text, which has the support of the pro-independence government of Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon. In addition, the minimum age to request the certificate is lowered from 18 to 16 years, according to the text, which is similar to the one voted recently by the Spanish deputies.
*Adapted from its original French version
