The Chamber of Deputies of Spain approved, this Thursday (22), a law that allows anyone over 16 to change their name and gender identity without any bureaucracy in the DNI, the Spanish RG. Just request the change when making the document.
Dubbed “trans law”, the project for the real and effective equality of transgender people and for the guarantee of the rights of LGTBQIA+ had 188 votes in favor and 150 against, in addition to seven abstentions. It will soon move on to the Senate for consideration, where approval is also expected — but it could go through revisions before then.
Gender self-determination is already a reality due to regional laws in 15 of the country’s 17 autonomous communities. For years, those over 16 have had the right to present themselves with the name and gender they want in administrative bureaucracy, for example, in university and school titles or in their health centers and hospitals.
After approval in the Senate, however, the right will be extended to the communities of Asturias and Castile y Leon, in addition to the two autonomous Spanish cities located on the coast of Morocco, in Africa, Ceuta and Melilla.
The project also advances so that 14- and 15-year-olds can change their name and gender identity, with the consent of their parents or legal representatives. And so that 12 and 13 year olds can also do it if they obtain court approval.
To make this change legal, the law officially depathologizes transsexuality, which ceased to be considered a disorder by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2018. From now on, medical requirements, such as hormone therapy or psychological report, are no longer be mandatory.
Other details establish that there are no special procedures if the person wants to return to the previous name and gender identity. A second change, however, will require judicial authorization.
The approved project also prohibits the promotion or practice of methods, programs or conversion therapies, whether psychological, physical or through drugs, which aim to modify people’s sexual orientation, sexual identity or gender expression, regardless of consent they or their legal representatives may have given. The attempt is now considered extremely serious and can result in fines of up to €150,000 (R$824,000).
In addition, an article of the Civil Code was amended so that the newborn of a couple formed by two women or by a woman and a trans man can be registered as the child of both. Until then, the trans man, or the woman who was not pregnant in the homoaffective couple, had to apply for adoption.
The approval in the Chamber of Deputies this Thursday was not smooth. There were months of debate, infighting in President Pedro Sanchéz’s party, the PSOE (Partido Socialista Operario Español), and conflicts in the feminist movement.
One of the seven abstentions was that of deputy Carmen Calvo, from the PSOE itself. A former vice-president, she is the chairman of the Equality Commission where the bill was pending. After Thursday’s vote, she said she wanted a law, “but not this one”, and that she “assumes the consequences” of her abstention.
For Irene Montero, Minister of Equality, “the most forceful way to deal with reactionaries is to continue advancing in democracy”. “Today, this House says trans rights are human rights,” she said, hours before the vote.
The objective of the new legislation is to guarantee and promote “the real and effective equality of lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual and intersex people, as well as their families”, with “specific measures aimed at the prevention, correction and elimination, in the public and private spheres , of all forms of discrimination; as well as promoting the participation of LGTBQIA+ people in all areas of social life and overcoming stereotypes that negatively affect the social perception of these people”.
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