Thursday, March 28

United We Can and the usual allies of the Government agree to include non-binary people in the Trans Law


If nothing changes, this Wednesday the time will run out for the presentation of the amendments to the so-called Trans Law. The norm, which has generated a deep gap in the PSOE and among the Government’s partners, seems to advance after the extension of this term on up to five occasions. The Socialists have already announced their amendments, the most far-reaching being the one that toughens the gender self-determination of those under 14 and 15 years of age, while their usual allies, together with United We Can, have agreed on a block of proposals that, among other things, aspires to include non-binary people in the law.

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Those who do not identify themselves as men or women were left out of the text that the Ministry of Equality had drawn up after negotiations within the Executive. The amendment states that the Public Administrations must adopt the necessary measures to “guarantee” that the documentation and forms are adapted to diversity, “including non-binary people”. In addition, it proposes the articulation of measures to “omit, at the request of the person concerned, the mention of sex in official documents.”

The eleven amendments have been jointly registered by United We Can, ERC, EH Bildu, PNV, Más País, Canarian Coalition, PdCat, BNG, Junts and Compromis. These are several measures proposed by the LGTBI groups, which have already announced that they will not allow “cuts” in the rule that came out of the Council of Ministers last June. Several of these formations already sealed their symbolic commitment to the organizations last week, signing a giant trans flag at the gates of Congress. The PSOE did not attend the event.



In addition to the inclusion of non-binary people, other proposals include replacing the term “sexual identity” with “sexual or gender identity” throughout the text, incorporating the mainstreaming of diversity in cooperation or development policy of guides and protocols to serve applicants for international protection. In the field of education, they suggest that educational centers must respect the gender with which the minor identifies, something that is already included in many regional laws, and they are committed to leaving a term of ten years to the parents of intersex babies to register their sex in the Civil Registry.

The gender self-determination of minors has now become the central issue of the debate. The draft drawn up at the time by Equality did not set any age limit for the modification of the registration mention, but the subsequent negotiations incorporated the judicial formula for minors between 12 and 14 years of age. LGTBI organizations have claimed at all times that judicial authorization is not a necessary requirement, but none of the eleven amendments deals with this issue.

It does not mean that there will not be any proposal in this sense, since the groups can file their own, but it will not be United We Can propose to return to the text drafted by Equality, since they confirm that they will not present any more.

On the other hand, the PSOE intends precisely to extend this judicial route originally devised for minors between 12 and 14 years of age to all minors under 16. Among its amendments, there is one that affects this point: they propose that those who have between 14 and 16 years old cannot modify the registration mention only with the authorization of their parents, as the law now says, but a judicial authorization is necessary. The groups have assured that it is a “red line” while Irene Montero has demanded this morning that the PSOE withdraw this proposal because “it breaches the commitment not to touch the heart of the trans law”, she has assured.



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