A draft law allows over-14s to change their legal gender with no medical diagnosis
In Spain they call it La Ley Trans — a draft law that would allow anyone over the age of 14 to change their legal gender with no medical diagnosis. The debate has been furious and nasty, and the arguments will be familiar to anyone who has been following proceedings in the UK. On one hand, Contra El Borrado de las Mujeres — a women’s advocacy group sporting similar colours to Woman’s Place UK — has called for caution. Meanwhile, supporters of the bill have protested in their own way. Last year they hung an effigy of Carmen Calvo from a tree.
At the time, Calvo was First Deputy Prime Minister in Pedro Sánchez’s coalition government, and already a known heretic. This week she told El Mundo that “La Ley Trans can destroy all equality legislation,” adding that “there is no fundamental right to gender self-determination”.
To the terf-finders general out there, this is surely blasphemy. But Calvo is no transphobe. She understands the difference between protecting the rights of trans people — like me — and attacking the foundations of human society. Calvo was clinical:
We must distinguish between the need for the state to respond to trans people and a queer theory that threatens to destroy all the progressive laws that have established equality between men and women.
Carmen Calvo
Absolutely. But this is a political battle within the governing coalition. Calvo and Sánchez are from the PSOE — the mainstream Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party. The Minister for Equalities, Irene Montero, hails from Podemos – a junior party in government, but one with the power to drive La Ley Trans through parliament.
Montero retorted by proclaiming that La Ley Trans “will be law”, while a Podemas spokesperson accused Calvo of attempting to “torpedo” the bill.
Emotions are running high, but the question we must keep asking is why these bills are so important to so many politicians. At a time when there is real war in Europe, why are they fighting to impose an ideology that replaces fact with feeling, using emotion rather than reason?
La Ley Trans is particularly worrying because it opens the door to children to change their legal sex. Those under 16 would need parental consent, but they could take the matter to court if there was disagreement. In my view, children are too young to understand the consequences: being a man or a woman is far more than a feeling. I wonder if the same could be said for Montero. At 34 years old, does she grasp the value of the protections she seems eager to abandon?
For the sake of women and children in Spain, she should stop criticising Calvo and start listening to her. Sadly, I cannot see it happening. This is a debate between reason and emotion, and Montero is squarely on the side of the latter.
Debbie Hayton
* This article was first published by Unherd on 29 September 2022: Spain considers radical trans bill.
Debbie Hayton 
3 replies on “Spain considers radical trans bill”
Perhaps you should look at the work of the TGEU which is funded by the EU. They seems to be building up their influence over almost every EU country, and beyond.
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“a debate between reason and emotion” — I like that.
“At a time when there is real war in Europe, why are they fighting to impose an ideology that replaces fact with feeling, using emotion rather than reason?”
You have a knack for summarizing the issues very well. As I’ve been saying: Your sex is what you are, and your “gender identity” is just how you feel — and since when does how you feel determine what you are?
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Sadly, Cyprus seems to have become infected with this madness. Lawmakers are considering the same thing here for teens 16+. There has been utterly no consideration of how this will affect the majority of youngsters re: female toilets and change rooms and of course sports teams. This will, however, not go down well in a very traditional society like Cyprus where the orthodox church has a strong influence, and the family is of paramount importance. I can see more than a few Cypriot fathers becoming incensed at the idea of boys pretending to be girls for a lark or to get attention getting into the female change rooms where their daughters would be vulnerable. This step will open the can of worms we have already seen take root in UK and US society. Just when the Scandinavian countries are taking a big step back and advising caution and watch and wait, this rush to appear ‘woke’ and at the forefront of ‘libertarian’ values is madness. In the EU politicians are pushing this agenda because there is big money involved with pharmaceutical companies as these kids become locked into a cycle of hormones etc. Parents here are already getting nervous and are not happy because of what they read in the UK and US news. This can only end in disaster and a generation of mentally and emotionally damaged kids with mutilated bodies should they be allowed to have early surgery.
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