We dismantle one by one the main hoaxes about the Trans Law
El Winners will be announced in March the world is celebrated International Day of Trans Visibility, which aims to make visible the discrimination suffered by trans people. The anniversary was created in 2009 by the trans activist Rachel Crandall as a reaction to the lack of visibility of trans people to raise awareness.
According to Amnesty International, from 2008 to 2021, at least 4.042 trans people They were victims of hate crimes. At the work level, the European Agency for Fundamental Rights points out that 1 in 3 trans people in Europe She has felt discriminated against when looking for work. In addition, trans people face institutional discrimination. Today, 28 countries Europeans demand a mental health diagnosis for legal gender recognition.
Spain It has been the tenth European country to approve a trans law that includes the gender self-determination. With her, anyone over the age of 16 can change her sex in the Civil Registry, those over 14 years of age need parental authorization, and those over 12 years of age, a judicial one. After their approval the hate speech against trans people and hoaxes They have not stopped circulating.
Neither the legal sex can be changed by going to a civil registry for a single day nor does the trans law touch on aspects related to sport. These are the hoaxes frequent about the trans collective:
Changing legal sex for “benefits”
A user of Twitter encouraged cis men to change their registry sex to benefit from “all tax reductions, exemptions, grants and fees” because, according to him, “Spain is one of the countries in the world that discriminates against men the most”. In these situations, people who try to circumvent the purpose of a rule "could commit a law fraud”, which would mean that the act that has been committed fraudulently is annulled.
Change legal sex in one day
It is not possible to go to a civil registry one day and leave with the legal sex changed in the birth registration that same day. The system contemplated by the norm obliges to appear even in two occasions to ratify the decision. From the application to the second appearance, they can spend up to three months maximum. And from the second appearance until the person in charge of the Civil Registry resolve the request there is a period of up to one month.
Genital modification of 'mature' minors from 12 to 16 years old
Strictly speaking, what has been approved in this law is that the intersex minors can modify their genitals when, “because of his age and maturity”, can “consent in an informed manner to the performance of such practices” and so request. The law establishes that intersex minors between the ages of 12 and 16 can undergo genital modification if they request it and are sufficiently mature. In fact, the law prohibits genital mutilation of intersex babies. To affirm that “the trans law approves the genital modification of 'mature' children from 12 to 16 years old” is misleading, since this measure is directed at the intersex collective and not at the trans collective.
Hoaxes in sports competitions
Many hoaxes and misinformation on transgender people focus on their participation in sports competitions. For example, one of them is based on a video of a Brazilian jiu-jitsu match between two female fighters. Some users claimed that one of the female fighters was actually a "man" who claimed to be trans woman. The objective was to criticize the participation of trans women in sports competitions as a result of the approval of the trans law. However, those who participated in this fight were two cis women.
