The Spanish parliament approved this Thursday a new law that allows the change of gender in the civil registry from the age of 12 without the need for medical advice, and from the age of 16, the person’s own will is enough.
With the new law, which still needs to be confirmed by the Senate (upper house of parliament) before it comes into force, it will be possible to change your sex in the civil registry in Spain, from the age of 12, without a medical opinion, but Authorization from a judge will be required for cases between 12 and 14 years of age and parents or legal guardians between 14 and 16 years of age.
For those over 16 years of age, the will of the person who wants to make the change will suffice.
In all cases, medical advice and proof of any hormonal treatment or therapy is no longer necessary.
Known as the “gender self-determination” law, the diploma aims to remove the burden of gender change pathology.
“trans people [transexuais] they do not need guardianship or witnesses to tell them who they are. Trans people are who they are and our obligation as a State is to recognize them and protect their rights”, said the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, in the final parliamentary debate on the new legislation, which took place this Wednesday.
The new legislation took more than a year to pass and along the way split the Socialist Party (PSOE), which rules Spain in coalition with the far-left platform United We Can.
The law was also opposed by some feminist associations, considered representatives of a “classical feminism”.
Like the critical wing of the PSOE, these associations condemned the possibility of a gender change solely based on the manifestation of the will of the person seeking it, considering that this could harm the advances achieved by women in the fight for equality. equal rights.
For these movements, being a woman is not a subjective identity and feminism is the fight against discrimination against an objective identity based on biological gender.
Minister Irene Montero said this Wednesday that “trans women are women” and spoke of “transphobia” during the process of debating the law.
For the Spanish Minister of Equality, which is part of Unidas Podemos, the new regulations are “one of the laws with the most social support in the entire legislature”, which expires in a year.
The new law also prohibits genital modification surgeries up to the age of 12 on children born with physical characteristics of both sexes (intersex or hermaphrodite children).
On the other hand, it establishes the right of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women with reproductive capacity to access medically assisted reproductive techniques and allows the filiation of children of lesbian and bisexual mothers without the need for marriage.
The new law was approved with the votes of the left-wing and Basque, Catalan and Galician nationalist parties, as well as other minor formations.
They voted against the right-wing parties, who claimed that there had not been a smooth and long enough legislative process in parliament to allow for all the necessary debates and hearings.
These parties also referred to the social division in relation to the legislation and criticism of the associations of parents, lawyers and health professionals, who considered that there was not enough security and guarantees in the law, especially in relation to the minors.
The deputy of the Popular Party (PP), Rosa Romero Sánchez, has warned of “the affectation of minors”, who are in “stages in which they are very vulnerable and very influential”.
“They intend to leave them alone, without follow-up,” said the deputy, turning to the left, also referring to the fact that the legislation allows “irreversible therapies” that adolescents may regret a day later.
Faced with these criticisms, the Minister of Equality thanked the fight and contribution to the drafting of the law of associations of trans people and health professionals.
Source: TSF
