Spain allows legal gender reassignment without medical assessment

A new law will allow people 16 and older to change their registered gender without undergoing psychological and medical evaluations to show gender dysphoria.< /p>

The Spanish government on Thursday approved a law allowing people aged 16 and over to change their legally registered gender without undergoing psychological and medical evaluations to show gender dysphoria , becoming one of the few countries to allow such self-declaration of gender reassignment.

Spanish Equality Minister Irene Montero told the Parliament that the new law recognized transgender people's right to self-determination and prevented being transgender from being treated as a pathology.

“Trans people are not sick people,” she said. "They are people, period."

Spain is among the first countries to adopt such a law, after countries like Denmark and Argentina. Similar proposals have divided public opinion elsewhere. Last month, the UK government overthrew the Scottish Parliament for the first time, blocking legislation that would have allowed transgender people to have the gender they identify with legally recognized by making a statement. The plan would have removed the requirement for "proof of a diagnosis of gender dysphoria".

On Thursday, Spanish lawmakers also gave final approval to a law granting women paid vacation. if they are diagnosed with severe menstrual pain, becoming the first country in Europe to do so. They also extended access to abortion to minors 16 and older without the consent of a parent or guardian.

The law on gender has created friction between right and left but also within the Socialist Party, the largest liberal party in Spain.

Víctor Gutiérrez, the L.G.B.T. secretary of the Socialist Party, praised it, writing on Twitter that it was "a law that improves the lives of millions of people".

But Carmen Calvo, a prominent socialist politician and former deputy prime minister, abstained from voting on the law, and a socialist senator said on Twitter that lawmakers should reject it in the name of feminism and socialism.< /p>

"Laws that are overturned in other countries should not be imposed by the will of a minority," said Feministas Socialistas, an association of socialist feminists, in a statement.

But for transgender rights activists, it was a belated victory.

“ The ordeal is over,” wrote Mar Cambrollé Jurado, a transgender rights activist, on Twitter. "Today is a historic day for trans people."

Under the new law, children between the ages of 14 and 16 will be able to legally change their gender in the civil status if accompanied by their parents or a legal guardian, and those between 12 and 14 years old will need the authorization of a judge.

After the initial request for legal sex reassignment, the applicant will have to ratify their decision within three months.

The law also prohibited conversion therapies aimed at change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.