Bs will be less than before the pandemic. Even so, this will be a triumphal parade starting from Madrid’s Atocha train station this Saturday. Traditionally, on the first Saturday of July, a large parade will end the “LGTBIQA + Pride Festival” in the Spanish capital. In 2017, more than 1 million people participated in “World Pride”. Due to the corona restriction, the organizers expect that there will not be so many participants this year. But activists have reason to celebrate, because the requirements of their official slogan has become a reality in Spain: “Human rights are not negotiated, they are legally established-comprehensive transgender rights take effect immediately,” he read in 2021.
Coinciding with the annual festivals and parades, the ruling left-wing coalition launched the relevant bill on Tuesday. This date is important for the government because the Spanish left sees itself as avant-garde in terms of equality. After Belgium and the Netherlands, Spain is the third European country to recognize same-sex marriage. The then socialist government implemented it in 2005-against the fierce resistance of the conservative People’s Party (PP) and the People’s Party. Catholic ChurchIn the future, the “right to freely determine gender” will be recognized. The approval of the parliament is considered definitive. By then, Spain will become the 16th country in the world to do this. In Europe, Denmark, Malta, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland and Portugal have all passed similar laws.
“Finally I don’t think I’m sick anymore”
“This is a historic day without any progress 15 years later: transgender people are finally no longer considered sick in Spain,” said Irene Montero, the gender equality minister from the left-wing replacement Podemos party. In the future, submitting two declarations to the registry every three months will be sufficient to change the gender-without the need for a two-year medical diagnosis and hormone therapy, which was necessary in the past. The age limit is 16 years; parents must agree to minors between 14 and 16 years old. Children aged 13 and 14 also need court approval. For some people, it is still too strict. According to Euforia, the organization for the transgender children’s movement, the age limit runs counter to the government’s promised right to self-determination.
The “Transgender Practical and Effective Equality Act” also provides for assisted reproduction for lesbian and bisexual women and “transgender persons who can become pregnant.” In the future, unmarried mothers living together will be recognized when registering their births. “Diversity” will appear in school curricula, and slander on the grounds of sex will result in high fines. The so-called “conversion therapy” used to “cure” homosexuality will be banned, with a fine of up to 150,000 euros. However, according to the draft, changing gender will not have any retrospective consequences. This means that no one can escape higher punishments.
Violent conflict within the Left League
Before the Cabinet’s decision, fierce disputes occurred within the Left League.First try from We can Even let the socialists fail in May. The young Podemos minister’s plan went too far, especially for the Socialist Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo (Carmen Calvo), who has been a minister until early 2020 and is responsible for gender equality policy. Carmen Calvo argued that she was worried and opposed to the idea that “gender can only be selected by pure will or desire.” Many older feminists agreed with her criticism, who believed that the achievements of the fight for equality so far were threatened by “men who identified themselves as women.” For them, gender is “an unalterable biological reality.”
“Reforms are a step backwards, and it is important to stop them so as not to lose the protection of specific rights against specific gender oppression,” the “Confluencia Feminista” association requested, in which about 50 groups gathered together. “Gender and gender cannot be confused,” they warned in a joint statement and demanded the resignation of the Minister of Gender Equality.
Angry members of the transgender movement called for feminists and socialists to be excluded from Saturday’s march. However, at the closing rally on Saturday, the militants in Plaza Colon will target other critics as their political targets. In recent years, the square next to the statue of Columbus has become the political arena of the right-wing Populist Voice Party. Now Vox and conservative PP have to do everything possible to stop the “ridiculous, harmful and abnormal” laws.
