A ground-breaking transgender rights measure in Spain will be put to the vote by lawmakers today (December 22), allowing anyone over 16 to change the gender on their ID card. According to AFP, the measure has caused rifts in both Spain’s left-wing government and its feminist movement. According to AFP, the bill, which has been hailed as the “triumph of reason over prejudice,” has prompted a contentious debate among the nation’s strong feminist lobby and LGBTQ equality activists.
The process for altering a person’s gender on their national identification card is significantly streamlined. Children as young as 12 can apply, but only under specific circumstances, and anyone over the age of 16 can request a change based on a straightforward statement. The applicant would then have to affirm once after three months of submitting this request before the modification would become effective.
Prior to this, only adult transgender people were permitted to request the change
Prior to this, only adults were permitted to request the change, and even then, they had to provide documentation of at least two years of hormone treatment as well as a medical report attesting to their gender dysphoria. “Today the feminist majority in this House responds to transphobia,” said Equality Minister Irene Montero adding that “At last this law depathologizes trans lives and guarantees trans people’s rights.”
The bill, which was initially approved by the Spanish government in June 2021, has caused friction between the Socialists and Podemos, who has apparently been seeking in vain to change it. Additionally, it has caused a rift in the feminist movement between supporters of Montero and the Socialists’ feminist lobby, which violently opposes the statement.
There are worries that the rule may encourage abuse and the deterioration of women’s rights
“The state has to provide answers for transgender people,” however gender is neither “voluntary nor optional”, said Carmen Calvo, who served as Sanchez’s former deputy and headed the equality ministry under the Socialists.
When gender is established above biological sex, she noted in a September interview with the daily El Mundo, it strikes her as a step backward in terms of growth. By permitting men who self-identify as women to participate in women’s sports and even ask to be transferred to women’s prisons, there are worries that the rule may encourage abuse and the deterioration of women’s rights.
