LGTBIQ+ entities highly critical of the CGPJ report that raises gender self-determination to 18 years
The full General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) yesterday unanimously approved its report on the preliminary draft of the Law for the real and effective equality of trans people and for the guarantee of the rights of LGTBI people. The CGPJ endorses gender self-determination, but proposes that the minimum age by which a person can request a change of sex in the registry be raised to 18 years. Therefore, it extends the judicial approval procedure provided for in the preliminary draft for transsexual minors between 12 and 14 years of age. In these cases, a voluntary jurisdiction file will be opened first and the plaintiff will have to demonstrate sufficient maturity to take the step and stability in their decision to change their sex.
The CGPJ also expressed its doubts about other Equality laws, such as the gender violence law, of which they questioned its constitutionality, or the 'only yes is yes' law, in which the wording on express sexual consent was rejected. and the suppression of the distinction between sexual abuse and rape in the Penal Code.
The CGPJ endorses gender self-determination
One of the main rights protected by the preliminary draft of the trans law is the modification of the legal sex on the DNI. Until now, and according to Law 3/2007 in force, trans people have to undergo a two-year hormonal process, in addition to a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The CGPJ report, in line with the bill, supports gender self-determination. The draft cites article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights: «elements such as gender identity, name, orientation and sexual life fall within the personal sphere protected by art. 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which with respect to transgender people implies a right to self-determination«.
Recognition of non-binary people
Another of the issues that they see positively on the part of the FELGTBI+ is the mention of rights of non-binary people in the draft of the CGPJ report that they hope will continue in the drafting of the final report. «On three occasions he speaks of the caution of the draft law in what has to do with non-binary people, mentions that in certain countries this group is already visible in official documents and criticizes the draft for not taking measures in that regulation and that recognition«.
Raises the age of self-determination to 18
One of the most controversial points of the report is that it proposes raising the age for a person to request a legal sex change by themselves in the registry without judicial authorization to 18 years. The Ministry of Equality in its draft established that from the age of 16 there would be no limitations in this regard. The bill established that from 12 to 14 years of age, judicial approval would be needed and between 14 and 16, the assistance of legal guardians.
«It's a last minute change based on transphobia. They have cut the rights of trans minors going against the ruling of the Constitutional Court 99/2019, making a political assessment based on prejudice«, denounces the president of the FELGTBI+ Uge Sangil.
In the draft of the CGPJ report, it was considered that, by legitimizing minors between 14 and 16 years of age to request the rectification of their sex without more consent than that of their legal guardians, the principle of special protection of minors was not complied with old: "This minimum requirement is not enough to protect the interest of minors in that age group who lack a sufficient degree of maturity or whose transsexual situation is not stabilized.»
Gender Violence
The preliminary draft already shields the maintenance of the legal obligations that any person had prior to the change of their legal sex. However, in the draft of the report, article 41 of the draft referred to sexist violence and they reiterate that it should be shielded «the modification of the mention of the sex of the man does not alter the regime of protection that the law provides to victims of gender-based violence nor allows it to be circumvented» since, according to them, «not clear«. Although, yes, they consider that this fraud of law would be «unlikely«.
Discrimination in sport
The body changes in the report, with respect to the draft, the expression non-trans women for women for cases of discrimination in sport. The draft criticizes that the law may violate the fundamental right to equality of women, saying that some provisions of the bill "promote the unwanted effect of generating situations of positive discrimination and, therefore, general indirect discrimination" against cisgender women. And the report directly enters into the provisions referring to sport, taking into account the "difference in existing physical conditions and the physical superiority of transsexual women compared to those who are not".
Reactions and joint statement
La FELGBI+, Triangle and Chrysallis Foundation highlighted this Wednesday that the report of the CGPJ on Trans Law is a compendium ofpolitical assessments"And"unjustified prejudice” against trans rights and LGTBIQ +. They did so through a joint statement after the CGPJ ruled on this project, warning that the rule can harm non-transsexual women and asking for more controls when a minor under 16 wants to change sex in the registry.
The three organizations pointed out that the CGPJ “closes with its report the legal debate on gender self-determination”, since from the documented part of it “it is very clear"than this one"promotes constitutional values”. However, "the modifications introduced at the last minute by the CGPJ in the report point to pressure and include purely political recommendations that exceed the role of this advisory legal body and enter the field of legislators".
Trans Platform Federation requests a meeting with Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón to accelerate the Trans Law
Speaking to Efe, the president of the Trans Platform Federation, Mar Cambrollé, explained that they have requested in writing a meeting with the chief executive who is urged to give the green light to the trans law and thus comply with part of the government programmatic agreement to which he committed in his investiture speech.
A law -Cambrollé points out- that "arrives late" and that comes to settle a historical debt that democracy has with trans people, who in the last two years have been suffering "a high degree of violence" with physical aggression, abandonment and humiliation in social networks, and in schools towards trans childhoods.
