Spanish Parliament passes transgender law
Spanish leftist Parliament members applaud after the vote in favour of a transgender rights bill at the Spanish Congress of Deputies in Madrid, on December 22, 2022. Photo AFP, Thomas Coex
Southern Europe
The Spanish Parliament has passed the controversial transgender law with 188 votes in favour, 150 against and seven blank ballots.
That is reported by Elpais.com. The bill will now go for review by the Senate.
The bill aims to give the LGBT community more rights. It should, for example, make it easier for people to change their legal gender. They no longer have to get an expert opinion but can just show a declaration of their will at the registry office. In addition, minors can request legal gender reassignment as young as 12 years. Anyone older than 16 does not even need the consent of a third party for that, CNE.news reported earlier.
The proposal has received much criticism, for example, from feminists, who fear that men will use the possibility of legal gender change to gain access to women’s facilities and abuse women there.
In addition to making legal gender change easier, the law removes the classification of transsexuality as a disease. To that end, it eliminates the medical requirements that were necessary for a legal gender change up till now.
Conversion therapy
Furthermore, conversion therapy is no longer allowed. The law also prohibits advertising these therapies or any methods that “intend to modify the sexual orientation, sexual identity or gender expression of persons, regardless of the consent that they or their legal representatives may have given.”
Also, the bill makes it easier for lesbian parents to get parental responsibility for their partner's child. If the bill is enforced, the registry office will treat them the same as heterosexual parents.
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