The Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gais, Trans, Bisexuales, Intersexuales y más (FELGTBI+); Chrysallis, Asociación de Familias de Infancia y Juventud Trans* and Fundación Triángulo celebrate the final approval of the Trans and LGTBI+ Law. According to the president of the LGTBI+ State Federation, Uge Sangil, “this legislation places Spain once again among the countries at the forefront of LGTBI+ rights”.

In this sense, she assures that “we have achieved a law that is among the six or seven most advanced in the recognition of trans rights for adults and among the four or five most advanced in the recognition of the rights of minors”.

However, she reminds us that “although non-binary people have been left out of this law, we, as organisations, will continue to work for the recognition of our identities and for the respect of our rights”. He also explains that “this law is only a first step towards the recognition of the rights of the whole group, but real equality will only become effective if we continue to fight for the advancement of rights and their implementation”.

For his part, the president of Fundación Triángulo, José María Núñez, celebrates this success of activism and assures that “after all these years of struggle, today, at last, we see this law approved in the first round in Congress. Today the parliamentary majority, in line with the social majority in the street, is in favour of recognising the dignity of trans people and legislating to compensate for years of social mistreatment, all thanks to an enormous mobilisation of citizens”.

“The lives of trans and LGTBI people, and the act of making use of the rights to which we are entitled, will be the answer to all the misinformation that we have experienced during the process and which has slowed down the approval process”, she adds.

Likewise, the president of Chrysallis, Ana Valenzuela, explains that, during the pressure of these four years and by taking to the streets, “we have achieved the depathologisation and self-determination of gender for trans people, so that they can have their gender reflected on their ID card without the need for witnesses, reports, diagnoses, tests or compulsory hormone treatment”.
“We have also managed to ensure that minors aged 16 and 17 can change their gender on their ID cards freely, and that minors aged 14 to 15 can do so accompanied by their families, something that is currently only included in three pieces of legislation at the international level. We have also managed to ensure that minors can change their name at any age, so as to facilitate their social transition”, he adds.

In addition to the achievements already mentioned, with the approval of the Trans and LGTBI Law:

  • Trans migrants who have not been able to change their registered sex in their own country will be able to do so in Spain, even if they do not have Spanish nationality, and it will be the Spanish state that accredits the situation in their country.
  • Subsidies to organisations that promote LGTBIphobia will be prohibited.
  • Assisted reproduction will be guaranteed for lesbian, bisexual and transgender women with the capacity to transgender people with gestational capacity.
  • Unmarried female couples will be able to have children on an equal footing with mixed-sex couples, without the need to adopt.
  • Unmarried same-gender couples may adopt on equal terms with mixed-gender couples.
  • Mutilation of intersex babies will be prohibited. Although not all the demands of the intersex collective have been met, as it was requested that their sex should not be registered before the age of ten, and finally it will be from the age of one year.
  • The State will be able to impose administrative sanctions to condemn discriminations, which are not per se a crime, against LGTBI+ people, including a sanctioning regime.
  • The law prohibits, with administrative sanctions, conversion therapies. It remains to be achieved that these therapies have a specific criminal sanction, since the law does not reform the Penal Code.
  • Progress is made in protection against violence against same-sex couples. Rights are guaranteed for the victims of this violence, such as the reorganisation of working time, geographical mobility and the change of workplace by employers.
  • In addition to all these points, progress is being made in active public policies for the real and effective equality of the LGTBI+ collective.