A law for “gender self-determination” from the age of 16 will be voted on at first reading this Thursday, December 22 by Spanish deputies in Madrid.
The "
trans law
" passed a first hurdle last week in the Congress of Deputies (lower house of the bicameral Spanish Parliament).
The bill received a favorable vote during its review by the Equality Commission
.
The text "
should be approved
" this week in the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies, reports the Spanish daily
El País
.
This bill provides that any Spaniard aged at least 16 may, on simple request, modify the mention of his sex in the civil status register.
For this, he will simply have to confirm his choice three months after the official request.
It will not be necessary to go to court, nor to provide medical evidence.
Above all, there will no longer be any need to receive hormonal treatment, which until now had to last at least two years.
Read alsoTrans children: when the desire to change identity shakes up the school
This approach will also be possible from the age of 14, with the authorization of a legal representative.
For 12-14 year olds, however, legal authorization will be required.
“It will be the law!”
The second vice-president of the Spanish government, Yolanda Díaz, welcomed the progress of the law on social networks: "
It is excellent news that trans and LGBTQ law is progressing in Congress, enshrining new rights and protecting trans people.
We are nearing the goal.
It will be the law!
“, she wrote on Twitter.
The Department for Equality also said it was "
satisfied
" with this first victory in Congress.
His minister, Irene Montero, personally indicated that it was "
one more step towards his final approval
", according to the Spanish media
El Diario
.
Tensions within the Spanish left
Coming from the Unidas Podemos party (radical left,
Ed
.), the minister had been working on this bill for a long time.
"
We thus recognize the right to free determination of gender identity, we are committed to
'
depathologization
',
that is to say that trans people will no longer be considered sick in our country
", had- she said last June during discussions on a possible draft “
trans law
”.
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The latter, however, created strong tensions within the government left.
If Irene Montero declared in a press conference that this law would make it possible “
to guarantee the real and effective equality of trans people
”, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), for its part, seemed much more reserved.
Carmen Calvo (PSOE), first vice-president of the government, thus affirmed that she was
"fundamentally concerned by the idea that gender is chosen on the simple basis of will or desire, weakening the identity criteria of the rest of the 47 million Spaniards
".
"If we deny sex, we deny the inequality that is measured and built on the basis of this biological fact,"
she added.
Critics of the opposition on the substance and on the form
However, at the dawn of Christmas, the PSOE is losing the legal battle: its proposed amendments were rejected by a majority of deputies last week during the examination in parliamentary committee.
He proposed in particular to extend the obligation of judicial approval to 14-16 year olds.
Further to the left, the deputies of Podemos and their allies considered that this amendment would be in opposition to the initial spirit of the text drafted last June.
Minister Irene Montero reaffirmed on this occasion that she would not accept “
any reduction of the right
” to “gender self-determination”.
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Some deputies also criticize the speed of the vote on this law.
Cuca Gamarra, spokesperson for the popular group (center right) in the Congress of Deputies, defended the need for a more in-depth debate on a text "
of enormous importance
".
Indeed, during the phase of presentation of the law, which took place at the beginning of December, Unidas Podemos and the PSOE refused the proposal of the People's Party which wanted to involve experts in the trans question and the families of the persons concerned.
The government did not want to further delay passage of the bill.
If the “trans law” does indeed make its way through Congress, some doubt that it can come into force, as planned, before 2023. Initially, the government wanted the text to be sent directly to the Senate, from the Commission for Equality , reports
El Diario
.
However, before that, it will finally indeed be examined in plenary session, which opens the way to long discussions, certainly heated.
