The head of FELGBTI+, Spain’s largest LGBTQ+ organisation, Uge Sangil, celebrated and danced to the tunes of the new law passed recently in the Spain Parliament. The country, in its recent law, permitted its citizens, who are above 16, to change their gender provided that they give a declaration for it. The change will be featured on their identity card.
Spain passed the transgender law
The country, lying in the southwestern part of Europe, passed the transgender law, providing every individual the right to live a life of dignity and respect. In this regard, Irene Montero, the Equality Minister of Spain, underscored the essentiality of the decision and how it will save many lives, now that the government intervention will be present. She further commented on the appalling misconceptions and applauded the law as a means to ebb away the feeling of abnormality often associated with the community.
Before the voting, Maria Jesus Moro, a member of the opposition party, appealed to the house citing instances of various other nations backtracking the law and the baneful repercussions of it. She quoted, “Let’s not go through the same thing”. As a result of her appeal, during the voting for passing the law, 191 individuals voted in favour of it, 60 voted against it while the other 91 opted for abstention.
The process, earlier, was arduous, as it needed a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and a timeline of two years during which the individual has been on a hormonal treatment, to get their gender changed on their identity card.
However, with concrete efforts, the procedure has become fairly simple as a person will now be supposed to only pronounce it on administrative papers to get it changed on their ID cards. The law, additionally states, individuals belonging to the 12 to 13 age group will need a judge’s approval while people aged 14-15 will require their parents’ consent. The new law, however, prohibits children below 12 from changing their gender. The law has also banned ‘Conversion Therapy‘ which is sought for changing a person’s sexual orientation to become heterosexual.
Along with the recent amendment, a few legislations were passed in Spain such as- making abortion accessible in public hospitals and permitting 16 and 17 age groups to go through abortion without seeking permission from parents. On the 16th of February 2023, Spain also became the first country in Europe to provide women with paid menstrual leave. It, furthermore, passed the bill for dispensing free menstrual products in schools and prisons along with distributing free hormonal contraceptives and the morning after pills at various state-run health centres.
Regardless of the historic decision, it was observed that as much as the law garnered appreciation, it simultaneously, also received criticism. The Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist Party, who is ruling presently, voiced reservations about it along with protestors who claimed the move to be undermining the rights of women and titled it to be misogynistic in nature.
Talking about the situation in other regions, it was found that, in 2014, Denmark had become the first European nation to pass a law along the same lines. And, Sweden in 1972, became the first in queue to make the gender transition legal at all.
