Compass Gender: Gender Self-Determination Law Filed in Spanish Congress

A proposed law permitting gender self-determination in Spain has sparked partisan debate. (Wikimedia Commons)

Four minor Spanish political parties registered a bill supporting gender self-determination with the Spanish Congress on March 17. The step is an attempt to bypass divisions within the country’s Council of Ministers, not just between left and right, but within the ruling left-wing coalition. 

The bill, nicknamed the Trans Law, would allow people over the age of 16 to change the gender listed on their legal identification documents without needing a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria or sign-off from a judge. Spain’s current legal and medical requirements can lead to years-long wait times for transgender people looking to have their gender reflected on documents like passports and driver’s licenses. One trans woman told the AP that these requirements are “humiliating” and “exhausting.”

Since the bill was proposed in early February by Equality Minister Irene Montero of the far-left Unidas Podemos party, right-wing opposition to the bill has arisen from a provision allowing children ages 12 to 16 to seek out a legal gender change in the absence of a parent’s permission, with the help of the courts and a non-parent “legal defender.” 

The far-right party Vox, for instance, introduced a proposal to ban “gender ideology”—including the use of the word “gender” itself—in response to the bill, arguing that so-called gender ideology in education is dangerous to children. In the non-law proposal, the party stoked fears of hormones and gender reassignment surgery for children, which would not be permitted under the proposed Trans Law. 

Vox representatives also cited feminist writings claiming that gender self-determination poses a threat to women’s rights—talking points that have appeared on the other side of the aisle as well.

While the center-left Socialist Party (PSOE) and Vox nominally occupy very different positions on the political spectrum, PSOE member and Spanish Vice President Carmen Calvo has also raised concerns that (cisgender) women’s rights could be negatively impacted by removing barriers to legal gender change. 

With Unidas Podemos and the PSOE making up Spain’s current ruling coalition, the two parties’ divergence on the Trans Law has raised obstacles, not just to passing the bill, but to the future of the coalition itself. A poll administered by DYM found that 63.3 percent of respondents believed that the coalition was in danger, although Unidas Podemos members were more optimistic. 

Champions of the Trans Law have blamed the PSOE for the bill’s blockage in Spain’s Council of Ministers, where the bill has still not been registered or formally debated. 

At least 70 people, including trans activists and allies, declared a hunger strike on March 10 in order to pressure the coalition into filing the bill in the Council of Ministers. The PSOE instead offered its own bill, which Calvo claims will increase LGBTQ+ equality, but refused to budge on the original Trans Law. 

Dissatisfied with the intransigence in the Council of Ministers, activists instead mobilized representatives in the lower house of Congress. Four parties signed on to register the bill, ending the hunger strike and marking a step along the way to eventual passage into law. 

With the introduction of the PSOE’s own proposed bill and Montero’s continued insistence that Unidas Podemos bring the original bill to the Council of Ministers, as well as the persistent backlash of right-wing parties, it is unlikely that the attempt to pass the bill will be without substantial controversy and contention. However, activists are confident that their efforts will reap results: on protest signs and social media posts alike, they write, “The Trans Law will be law.”