Congress has definitively approved the Trans Law. This means that Spain will now recognize the so-called gender self-determination, that is, the possibility that a person can change their sex by themselves for all legal purposes in the Civil Registry without anyone being able to demand medical reports to prove gender dysphoria or the obligation to take hormones for two years. It will be totally free from the age of 16 and with certain conditions depending on the age from the age of 12.
The approval of the law has come after many months of bitter political and social debate on the implications and effects of this rule. In that time, the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, has seen vehement opposition from the PP or feminist associations against her legislative text, but also from the PSOE. First within the Government and later in the process in Congress, the majority partner of the Executive has raised important objections to the law, has even doubted the constitutionality of aspects such as that of minors, until he lost the fight with United We Can and ended up assuming the text as it is.
These difficulties have led the Minister of Equality to recognize this Thursday in Congress that the law has managed to move forward “against all odds.” “We have taken as big a giant step as we could, but very few people trusted that this was possible,” Montero said in plenary before the vote.
In any case, the law still has internal resistance in the PSOE. Carmen Calvo has again broken the voting discipline of her group this Thursday and has abstained, as the former vice president did when the text was voted on last December. Also in the Senate, a socialist stood out, Susanna Moll, who in her case voted no to the Trans Law.
Faced with the celebrations of Irene Montero, the PP has warned of the “irreversible problems” that the law will cause due to the absence of “safeguards” such as going through a doctor. Mainly among minors who take steps to change their sex and later regret it after starting to take hormones. Thus, he has warned of the suffering and “tears” that await them due to the lack of protection to which they are subjected. For this reason, the PP has lamented that the Trans Law is going to become a “new yes is yes”.
The deputy María Jesús Moro has stressed that it will not help for Pedro Sánchez to say three months later, as with the law on sexual freedom, that it must be corrected. “We are not here to experiment with people. We do not want a new unbearable count of victims to begin days later,” he said, stating that it is a “remake of only yes is yes” and denouncing that Spain ignores the steps back that are being taken in other countries such as Sweden, the United Kingdom or Finland, with special emphasis on the case of Scotland.
The law, which brings with it an important package of advances in rights for trans people and also LGTBI, has gender self-determination as its central point. It will be completely free from the age of 16. For minors below that age threshold, certain conditions are established up to 12 years of age, which is the minimum age at which a legal change can be requested.
Between the ages of 14 and 16 it is required to have parental permission but if there is disagreement with them, young people can go to a legal defender to get it. Between the ages of 12 and 14, sex change requests need the endorsement of a judge. Under 12 years of age, trans children may change their name and be treated according to their identity in schools, but they may not yet legally change their sex.
The issue of minors has been one of the major focuses of debate in the Trans Law, because it was the PSOE who presented an amendment to the law to extend the requirement of judicial guarantee up to 16 years of age. The clash between the partners on this issue was furious and ended up being resolved in a tense vote in the Equality Commission in which the Socialists were left alone. From there, the PSOE assumed defeat and endorsed the text, refusing to continue with that battle.
The Trans Law has had to return to Congress because minor technical changes were introduced in the Senate. That is why this Thursday there has not been a vote on the whole, but there have been two on the approved amendments, in which there have been different positions among supporters of the law. In any case, the text is endorsed with a large majority of the 190 votes made up of PSOE, Unidas Podemos, ERC, PNV, EH Bildu, Junts or Más País.
The final approval of the law, as has been the case in recent months, has been received with division by feminists. Minutes after the closing of the parliamentary session, Irene Montero and other senior officials of Equality have gone out to the Plaza de las Cortes to, on the stairs of access to Congress, pose for a photograph together with representatives of associations defending the rights of women. transgender people
However, the snapshot has been marked by another parallel concentration that was also taking place at that time in front of the Lower House. Critical feminist associations demanded the resignation of Minister Montero for, with her management, abandoning and squandering the feminist struggle and contributing to the erasure of women.
Several dozen feminists have called for “minister resignation”, “feminism is not for sale” or “patriarchal ministry” at the same time that the Equality leadership, supporting trans associations, celebrated that the rights of trans people are already reflected in the legislation.
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