Spain passes transgender law that divides left and feminists
A bill allowing people to freely change gender from the age of 16 was adopted on Thursday, December 23 at first reading by Spanish deputies, after months of tension within the ruling left and the feminist movement.
REUTERS - SUSANA VERA
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A bill allowing people to freely change gender from the age of 16 was adopted on Thursday, December 23 at first reading by Spanish deputies, after months of tension within the ruling left and the feminist movement.
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Battle horse of the radical left party Podemos, an ally of the socialists in the government of Pedro Sanchez, this text was supported by 188 deputies while 150 voted against and 7 abstained.
If it is, as expected, definitively adopted by the Senate in the coming weeks, it will allow Spain to join the few countries in the world authorizing gender self-determination via a simple administrative declaration.
In Europe, Denmark was the first country to grant this right to transgender people in 2014.
►
To listen: Accents of Europe: The new battle of the genre
Concretely, this text should allow transgender people to have their name and gender changed on their identity papers during a simple appointment with the administration.
And this, without providing medical reports or proof of hormonal treatment followed for two years, as is the case today for adults in the country.
This text will also allow 14-16 year olds to freely change gender in civil status, provided that they are accompanied in the procedure by their legal guardians.
12-14 year olds will have to get the green light from the courts.
Fracture
Adopted by the Council of Ministers more than a year ago,
this bill caused a split
between Podemos and the Socialist Party, which tried to modify the text, in vain.
For the radical left and its leader Irene Montero, Minister of Parity, it is a day of jubilation: “
Finally, the right for people to decide their own sexual orientation beyond their biological reality, it was time
”.
💜 Hoy tenemos que celebrar que este es el avant más important par las personas Trans en 44 años de democracia 🏳️⚧️ y esto no habría sido possible sin la lucha empoderada de las personas trans ni el @IgualdadGob con una Ministra valiente como @IreneMontero
HOY #HayLeyTrans ✊🏾🏳️⚧️💜 pic.twitter.com/8fysjkaYW1
— 🔻Mar Cambrolle Jurado🏳️⚧️ Habrá Ley Trans (@CambrolleMar) December 22, 2022
For the three right-wing parties, liberals, conservatives and
the ultras of Vox
, it is quite the opposite: this legislation is aberrant.
“
You have to be an adult,
they say
, to make such an important and engaging decision
”.
The big surprise of this vote occurred within the socialist camp, reports our correspondent
François Musseau
.
Several older feminist figures abstained to express their disapproval with this legislation.
At their head, the former vice-president of the socialist government Carmen Calvo: "
To claim gender as being above biological sex (...) seems to me to be a setback"
for women, she said in an interview with the daily
El Mundo
in September.
According to her, adolescent men will now be able, overnight, to choose to become a woman and obtain prerogatives that decades of feminist struggle have been able to wrest from male domination.
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To listen: Great report: Sweden is worried about the trans wave among young people
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