One year of the Trans Law: “There is a lot of stigma, but in the end we are normal people doing normal things”.

– Legal sex change and other keys to the Trans Law

Azahara Ortiz puts on her boots and steps firmly on the field, as if she had been waiting half her life to do so. It took a lot of energy to start soccer training late at night on a cold, wet February day. It’s raining in the Vallecas neighborhood, south of Madrid, but that doesn’t stop Azahara and her colleagues. “Come on girls, let’s run to warm up!” the coaches encourage them by clapping their hands. As every Tuesday and Thursday, the Puerto de Vallekas women’s team practices moves, dribbles and shots on goal in preparation for the next game and reviews what can be improved from the previous one. That was the first one in which Azahara did not stay on the bench.

The young woman, a native of the city of Algeciras, in Cádiz, played as one of the players in that game for the first time since she joined the team. Until now I only participated in training sessions because I could not compete as I was not federated. She could not because she had not yet changed the male sex that appeared on her National Identity Card (DNI) for the one she had always felt corresponded to her: that of a woman. At 29 years old, Azahara finally recognizes herself in the piece of plastic that tells the story of who she is. A key procedure for many trans people, who are now no longer obliged to declare themselves ill in order for the Spanish State to officially admit their legal sex.

This was enshrined in the Law 4/2023 for the real and effective equality of trans persons and for the guarantee of the rights of LGTBI persons.known as the Trans Law, which was sanctioned by the King on February 28th, a year ago and only a few days later it came into force. Although the norm deploys a wide range of measures, all eyes are on gender self-determination, a historical demand of the trans community.

The text has made Spain one of the 16 countries in the world that have a process of legal recognition of gender based on this principle. They are Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Malta, Luxembourg and New Zealand. This means that in these places trans people can modify their official documents without complying with the medical requirements usually requested by most States: from undergoing surgical, hormonal or sterilization interventions to undergoing psychiatric tests or diagnoses.

How is the legislation for changing gender in each country?

Legal framework for the recognition of gender reassignment in every country of the world

Since 2007 there was already a law in Spain that allowed the modification of the legal sex in documents, but this required medical conditions considered “pathologizing” by LGTBI and human rights organizations: the person had to have a psychiatric report diagnosing them with gender dysphoria and have undergone a minimum of two years of hormone treatment. The new rule, on the contrary, eliminates these requirements and allows the change based solely on the “freely manifested will” of the person.

When the law came out it was a relief. It was clear to me from the beginning that I had to go and I thought it would be better as soon as possible because we didn’t know if I was going to be there for long.

Azahara Ortiz

Although today Azahara would already meet these conditions, she did not do so when the Trans Law became a reality. So, with the name already changed thanks to a 2018 instruction from the Ministry of Justice, he let a couple of days pass and did the same with the legal sex. The request must be processed before the Civil Registry, which summons the person to two appearances separated by three months in which he/she shows his/her “disagreement” with the gender assigned at birth. “When the law came out it was a relief. I was clear from the beginning that I had to go and I thought it was better as soon as possible because we didn’t know if I was going to be there for long. The truth is that I was very lucky and in July I had my papers in order,” explains the young woman.

At that time, and although he had to wait for the current season to federate, he had already been training for some months with Puerto de Vallekas. “Coincidences of life, the Trans Law came into force on March 3, 2023 and just that day was the first day that I started with the team,” she says proudly. “They told me there was no problem that I couldn’t play the games and that there were two other trans girls, so I, who had never been on a team at all, decided to come. The first day I was a little scared thinking ‘I’m not someone who has to be here,’ but the welcome from them was tremendous,” she recalls about her teammates.

The law that looked like it would not be

191 votes in favor, 60 against and 61 abstentions. This is the result of the vote with which the Congress of Deputies gave the green light to the law popularly known as the Trans Law. That was not just any session. The rule reached its final step, leaving behind an unprecedented fracture in the feminist movement and in the coalition government. The crux was precisely gender self-determination, which for a sector of feminism and some voices within the PSOE, which was also split in two, limits and endangers the rights of cis women -who are not trans-.

“There were several moments when the law was in danger and we thought it would not come out,” summarizes the president of the State Federation LGTBI+ Uge Sangil. The role of the collectives, which practically functioned as mediators between the two wings of the government, was key to unblocking the regulation. Finally, the legislative version defended by the Ministry of Equality of Irene Montero (Podemos), ended up being imposed. Today the balance is positive: “It has extended rights, not only to trans people, but to the entire LGTBI+ collective. If we talk about the legal rectification, it is a giant step to recognize people as they are and puts us at the forefront internationally”.

This is highlighted by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), which points to “a significant improvement” in Spain’s position in its ranking of LGTBI rights – in 2023 it climbed six places to fourth place – thanks to “the extensive protections” for the group in the new legislation, says Cianan Russell, spokesperson for ILGA-Europe. International bodies such as the Council of Europe or the European Commission have long been calling for processes based on self-determination and the World Health Organization (WHO) stopped considering transsexuality a disease in 2018, but the conflict has not been closed and has echoes globally.

The dispute has even reached the United Nations, where the various independent experts take opposing positions. The UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, has taken a stand against the Spanish law, stating after its approval: “Countries should reflect on whether someone with a male biological sex, once they have acquired their female gender certificate, should be able to access all the programs and categories designed for biological women”. In contrast, nine other experts signed a letter stating that the Trans Law “removes obstacles that are arbitrary, humiliating and harmful to the human person”.

Lucía Sobral remembers the day she started the procedure as a day “of bureaucracy”, but she points out as important the moment when she had the DNI in her hands: “It says Lucía Sobral, woman and it has a photo with which I am comfortable”.

The conflict was not just a debate of ideas, or not in all cases. There were those who had doubts about the rule and felt that more education was needed to explain it, but trans people themselves have also seen how their identity has been questioned virulently, especially in social networks: “In real life I have not had any violent situation so far, let’s hope it stays that way, but in the end you suffer violence in networks. It has happened to me to post tweets that have nothing to do with the subject and people come to insult me for being trans. That affects, obviously,” Azahara wields.

Beyond her particular case, the young woman celebrates that the Trans Law “embraces the diversity” of the collective. “Not everyone has the same reality, I do have hormone treatment because I chose to, but there are people who don’t want to go through that and it doesn’t make them any less valid or any less of a trans person. In the end, I knew on my own that I was a trans person, no one had to tell me. It’s something you know, you may have doubts, you may have to think about it a lot and explore yourself, but it’s something that only you are going to know and no one outside can tell you if you are or not.”

She shares her opinion Lucía Sobral, who has tried to “stay out of” what she defines as “a wave of hatred” to people who are like her by silencing on X (formerly Twitter) “all related words”. A year ago her picture appeared in several media: the Trans Law had just come into force and this student from the Canary Islands was the first person to ask for a legal sex change in Madrid. He remembers it now as “a day of bureaucracy, nothing more, as if I were going to change my registration” and as part of a broader process of changing all his documents that has taken him three years. The moment she does point out as important was in August 2023, when she was finally able to get her ID card: “It says Lucía Sobral, woman, and has a photo that I am comfortable with”.

The judge who stops fraud

Although there is still no official data on how many legal sex changes have been made in Spain one year after the law was passed, the procedures have generally gone smoothly. Some people face “delays” in the procedures due to the collapse of the civil registry offices, but “there has not been an avalanche of men changing their sex to enter women’s spaces, and there have been trans people who have exercised their right,” Sangil says about the alert made by some feminist sectors. “The cases that have transcended the media do not show that the law is flawed, but rather that there are those who use it to cast doubt on it.”

Judge Matías Martínez, who has denied six petitions for fraud, assures that some have confessed to him that “they don’t feel like women at all” and others bring a “more constructed” discourse, but “as soon as you ask, they drop it”.

There have been some men who have tried to use the Trans Law contrary to its objective, such as the sergeant who sought a military promotion, and also judges who have blocked petitions because they saw fraud in the law. This is the case of Matías Martínez, a magistrate from Bartolomé de Tirajana, a municipality in the south of Gran Canaria, who, since the entry into force of the new regulation has stopped six requests for registration rectifications by appreciating “spurious intentions” on the part of the applicants: “Applicants who incur in fraud make their requests in other registries because they know that I will deny them,” he assures.

For this judge, the fraud of men seeking to benefit from positive discrimination measures that exist to guarantee equality “is evident” and he identifies it “taking into account a set of elements” that lead him to assess “whether the feeling is real or not”. With some, the process is very short. They directly confess that they “do not feel like women”, others bring a discourse “a little more constructed”, but “as soon as you ask a little question, it falls out”. Martinez is wary of those who keep a male name, although this is not enough for him to deny the change, nor does he look at the person’s physique and has a battery of questions that “inexorably” allow him to reach the conclusion “analyzing case by case and always respecting the dignity of the person”.

Colleagues ask him to share the issues he raises in the hearings, and although Martinez answers their doubts, he believes that the drafting of guidelines is the responsibility of the institutions, specifically the Ministry of Justice. The judge considers that “it was very clear” that the regulation “was going to have consequences such as these”, but he values it positively. He believes that the medical requirements that were previously demanded “were an interference” in the lives of trans people, but thinks that magistrates should have more mechanisms to identify fraud “just as there are clear criteria with other issues such as marriages of convenience,” he exemplifies.

The road ahead

Like Azahara and Lucía, Edel Granda did not take long to go to the Single Civil Registry in Madrid to request the change “for fear that the rule would be eliminated by the ultra-right”. The risk of the Popular Party and Vox governing Spain after the June elections made LGTBI people fear that the law could be repealed, something both parties promised, but finally the coalition government was reissued. The text is still in force and the threat has diminished, but it has not been completely diluted as the right wing continues to target it and charge against everything that sounds like LGTBI rights.

Active policies for employment must still be deployed and the appropriate regulations must be developed, such as the one for immigration offices or for LGTBI entities to be aware of the sanctioning regime of the law.

Mar Cambrollé – President of the Federation Trans Platform

Although Edel was looking for the peace of mind of having his papers changed, at the same time the modification made him feel a point of rage at being invisibilized as a trans boy. “I have fought in spaces precisely because I am trans and I do not have the same privileges as a cis man,” emphasizes this 28-year-old researcher. Her main motivation was “to avoid uncomfortable situations at the doctor’s office or at the administration because she was listed as a woman”, for example, at the university, where she was listed as a professor or researcher. However, she is afraid that appearing as a male will end up trampling on her right to health, something that has already happened to her with a gynecology professional, who has even told her that “if I identified myself as a man, there was no point in me being there”.

LGTBI and trans organizations know that there is still a long way to go. Mar Cambrollé, president of the Trans Platform Federation, believes that the new model “has returned dignity” to trans people, but recognizes that the Ministry of Equality, now headed by the Socialist Ana Redondo, has work ahead: active policies for employment still need to be deployed and develop the appropriate regulations, such as the one for the offices of foreigners or for LGTBI entities to know the penalty regime of the law, she enumerates.

Cambrollé considers it essential that the text “is now effectively implemented” and demands that, far from taking steps backwards, it should be expanded to include the issues that LGTBI groups consider important. were pendingPlataforma Trans is one of the groups demanding the recognition of non-binary people and the access of trans children under 12 years old to the process of registry rectification.

After the debate, the reality

Behind the administrative processes, documentation, bureaucracy or debates on standards, there are people who, with different life trajectories, only seek to be recognized as they are in a society that has talked a lot about them but has rarely come close to getting to know them. This is how Azahara feels, who has found a “safe space” in Puerto de Vallekas, a self-managed team that not only plays soccer, but also weaves alliances with other social groups in the neighborhood. “It’s complicated. Trans people have been put in the fear that we can’t play normally or we’re going to stand out and in the end, in reality, I’m a rotation player in a provincial league, I’m here to hang out.”

The young woman defines her process of acceptance as a trans woman as a “very long” period. At the beginning, in adolescence, “I was not clear about what was going on” and when I began to understand it, the “blockage” began. “I knew it but I thought it was not something possible, I always said I would do it ‘when I grew up’, that was my desire, and in reality it has been a bit like that. When I decided to take the step and live publicly as Azahara, I had spent half my life knowing it,” says the Cadiz-born singer, who believes that “the possibility of having references” would have saved her a good deal of suffering.

I’ve been in trans groups and I’m on a trans basketball team and what I always imagine is that from the outside what you see is people having a good time just like anyone else.

Azahara Ortiz

Now, proud of who she is, she fights for the rest of society to “understand” trans realities. “I’ve been in trans groups and I’m on a trans basketball team and what I always imagine is that from the outside what you see is people having a good time just like anyone else. That is the normality that I think needs to be transmitted because there is a lot of stigma, but in the end we are normal people doing normal things, people who, like anyone else, we do our lives, we have our hobbies, our jobs, we play sports or play an instrument and for a circumstance of life we have ended up not identifying with the gender assigned at birth, “he reflects.

This right to be is something that Lucía also claims. The student sighs thinking about the accumulated fatigue of the procedures of the last few years, which have finally led her to be officially recognized by the State: “I feel like a citizen, I have all my papers in order and I feel that I can be something more than trans. I feel like a citizen, I have all my papers in order and I feel that I can be something more than just trans.

Video elaborated by Javier Cáceres, Rocío Bermejo, Nando Ochando