Spanish can change gender at 16 after trans law is passed

The new law allowing anyone over 16 to change gender without parental consent has divided parliament and angered feminists.

Irene Montero, centre, the Minister equality, joins the celebrations after the law’s approval. Picture: AFP

Spain’s parliament has approved a law that allows anyone aged 16 or over to change their gender without parental consent. It comes after months of deep divisions in the government and opposition from the country’s feminist movement.

The bill, known as the trans law, was opposed by senior government figures, including a deputy prime minister, who argued it eroded women’s rights.

Trans women have been allowed to choose to be sent to women’s prisons since 2006, but feminists have raised concerns that the law would”institutionalise” this right and make it more open to abuse. It has also been criticised by the conservative opposition, whose leader said it “trivialises human nature” and had been imposed “by a minority against the majority”.

The law was approved yesterday (Thursday) by 191 votes to 60, with 91 abstentions.

It makes Spain one of a handful of countries allowing people to change their gender on their national identity card with a simple declaration. Westminster blocked a similar law for Scotland last month.

Spanish politicians and media closely followed the fate of the Scottish gender recognition reform bill and the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon as first minister. El Mundo newspaper noted: “The trans law which has helped to end the political career of Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland’s chief minister, worn out by other issues, is much more restrictive than the Spanish norm.”

The Socialist-led coalition government of Pedro Sanchez, the prime minister, is already embroiled in a tussle with its far-left coalition ally over reforming a new consent law that led to 400 sex offenders having their sentences reduced or being freed. The opposition has attacked the government over the crisis in an election year.

The trans law will also allow children aged 14 and 15 to change their gender legally without medical evaluation, but they would need their parents’ consent. Those aged 12 and 13 would need permission from the courts.

The law also bans conversion therapy, introduces fines for attacks on LGBT people and overturns a ban on lesbian couples registering children under both parents’ names.

Previously adults could request the change of gender only with a medical report attesting to gender dysphoria and proof of having had hormonal treatment for two years. Minors needed authorisation from a court to change their official gender.

Activist and first transsexual elected to Spain's parliament Carla Antonelli speak to media in front of the Spanish Congress, in Madrid. Picture: AFP

“Spain is a country that can be proud today because it advances rights and becomes a better society,” Irene Montero, the equality minister, said. Montero, of the far-left coalition party Podemos, drafted the trans law as well as the “botched” consent law. She added: “This law recognises the right of trans people to self-determine their gender identity, it depathologises trans people. Trans people are not sick people, they are just people.”

Many feminists fear the bill will erode women’s safety in areas such as prisons and that their rights in health, sport and politics will be endangered.

Carmen Calvo, a Socialist deputy prime minister who led the opposition to the law, was fined by her party for abstaining when the bill was first voted on in the lower house at the end of last year. She abstained again yesterday (Thursday) when the senate returned the bill to the lower house with amendments, saying: “I agree that there is a need for a law, but not this law.”

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, leader of the People’s Party, the main conservative opposition, said the law was “a frivolity that affects the rights of women and the rights of children” and that it treated some of the “basic principles of human dignity . . . as a joke”.

He has vowed to repeal it if his party wins next year’s elections.

The Times