Radio discussions, thousands of tweets, posts across all media outlets, and diverse opinions about the Trans Law in Spain—and it still seems nothing is clear. When I read or listen to the different perspectives or participate in a debate, I ultimately see that the genuine focus gets lost, and everything ends up in a jumble of strange millennial insults ("you're a TERF ," for example), and we stop listening to the person in front of us. This is a far cry from the feminism and sisterhood we've been fighting for for so long.
But what does the Trans Law look for? Why so much debate? Where should the focus of attention be placed? Let's make a brief summary and review various concepts so that everyone can, at least, understand one of the most controversial issues in the arena.
Here the draft of the Trans Law
Objectives of the Trans Law
The Trans Law seeks (or should seek) to give all rights to trans people, promote equality and end discrimination.
At the moment, there is only a draft, so it has not yet been accepted as law.
The trans collective asks for a "depathologization of transsexuality" and "gender self-determination", and this is what the Law gives them. So, why is a sector of feminism not completely satisfied?
From what I hear in the debates, it all stems from the concept of gender . No feminist has openly said (and I don't expect them to) that trans people shouldn't be protected by the law, shouldn't have the same rights as cisgender women, or that they aren't women.
“Gender is not an identity; it is a cultural construct that imposes roles and responsibilities based on sex,” says Ángeles Álvarez, former member of parliament for the PSOE (La Vanguardia, 2021). In other words, advocating for legal gender self-identification is to recognize that genders exist and should be protected by law . For this reason, part of the feminist movement disagrees with the technical terms used in the draft, which employs “gender self-identification” instead of “sex self-identification.”
A person who is born with a sex with which they do not feel comfortable or identified is a transsexual person. For example, a transsexual woman is one who was born with a penis and feels like a woman. Now, she may or may not have surgery and change her reproductive system if she wishes.
But what is it to be transgender? Isn't this concept the cause or root of this debate? Being transgender implies not feeling comfortable with the gender imposed by society. Is a woman who was born with a vagina, but does not agree with the roles that have been imposed on her (dressing in the X way, put on make-up, waxing, etc.) or a man who was born with a penis and does not want to participate in transgender imposed masculine roles to which we are accustomed?
By definition, yes. They would be. And, obviously, these people must also be protected by law.
Transsexual and dysphoria
Therefore, following this line of thought, the problem arises with the phrases "I feel like a woman" or "I feel like a man." A trans woman, whether or not she has chosen to have surgery, feels that she is a woman . She feels that she was born in a body with which she is not comfortable. She feels that the sex she was born with is not her own. And this is what is known as "gender dysphoria" or "sex incongruence" [in some places it is accompanied by "gender dysphoria," but shouldn't it be "sex incongruence"?].
In 2018, this dysphoria was depathologized as a "mental health disorder" by the World Health Organization (WHO), but was left in the category of "sexual dysfunction"; so that it ceases to be considered a psychological illness and becomes a physical illness.
However, with the draft of the new Trans Law, it is intended to completely depathologize dysphoria.
Here is another of the great points of the debate. Is dysphoria a physical illness? Why so much fear of the word "disease"? Is the problem in the definition of "disease"?
Nobody wants to feel sick. No one wants to be pointed at by someone else's finger. No one wants to be looked at with pity. It is totally understandable. And if the fact of labeling this group as "sick" hurts them, and depathologizing it benefits them, go ahead.
However, it has been criticized that removing it from this list of sexual dysfunction diseases could have negative consequences for the trans community itself. If it is not considered a disease, could they lose their health rights when it comes to wanting hormones or surgery? This is the question asked by those feminists who have opposed this point in the draft.
Transsexuality: disease or not
If the problem truly lies in language and the use of the word "disease ," and ceasing to refer to it as such will have no negative consequences for them, then there's nothing more to discuss. Let it stop being called a disease.
The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) (which shouldn't be invoked as if it were an all-powerful deity, but simply to standardize the definition) defines illness as a more or less serious alteration of health. Therefore, it could be considered an illness if being born with a sexual organ with which one does not identify damages their health in some way.
Michael First, a clinical psychiatrist at Columbia University (USA), states that linking transgender people to mental disorders is entirely harmful due to the significant stigma surrounding these illnesses, but that “it couldn’t be completely removed from the ICD-11, since transgender people need medical procedures (…) They also need surgeries or therapies, so without a diagnosis, these people could be left without coverage. The real question wasn’t whether or not gender incongruence could be removed from the ICD, but where it could be relocated,” the professional explains (La Tercera, 2018).
Self-determination without medical report
Another of the most applauded and, at the same time, criticized points of the draft is that of “gender self-determination without the need for a medical report”.
Critics point out that without the need for a qualified professional to determine whether a person is transgender or not, any individual can go to the registry to change their sex on their identity document.
If you think coldly, it should not matter what it says or does not put on the DNI. No relevance should be given to sex for any type of procedure since what is sought is equality. In fact, wouldn't it even be more appropriate not to have to constantly report sex in every bureaucracy?
Obviously, for practical purposes it does matter. In Spain, at least, inequality by sex continues to exist, sexist violence continues to exist at the public and private level.
In addition, there are jobs for which a minimum of women or men must be accepted in order to meet parity rates.
In these cases, opponents of the law say that anyone could go to the registry to change their sex in order to take advantage of the benefits of belonging to the other sex. I find it hard to believe that this could happen; but, unfortunately, in a country where anything is possible.
However, the defenders of the draft allude to the minimum number of these fraudulent cases that would be carried out.
Similarly, this could be avoided with a medical report indicating that this person has dysphoria (whether disease or not). Which leads us inevitably to the previous point.
Trans Law Debates
As we can see, it is a confusing debate. I repeat that we cannot lose the final and genuine goal, which is to achieve real equality for everyone, regardless of sex, regardless of what reproductive system you were born with, without discrimination and without anyone deciding for anyone how they feel, but where we all consider these issues in depth, without being afraid to doubt, to ask, to debate and learn.
➳ Here another debate on Prostitution
REFERENCES
FERNÁNDEZ CANDIAL, A. (February 5, 2021) Trans Law: Two Opposing Analyses. La Vanguardia . Retrieved from: https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20210307/6265037/ley-trans-dos-analisis-contrapuestos.html
SEPÚLVEDA, YÁÑEZ AND SILVA (June 18, 2018) Transsexuality: from mental disorder to sexual disease, according to the WHO. La Tercera. Retrieved from: https://www.latercera.com/tendencias/noticia/transexualidad-trastorno-mental-enfermedad-sexual-segun-la-oms/211488/#:~:text=Being%20transsexual%20is%20no%20a%20mental%20health%20disorder.&text=With%20this%20change%2C%20the%20person%20loses%20the%20gender%20they%20feel.
ÁLVAREZ, P. (February 7, 2021) The 'trans law' from opposite angles. El País. Retrieved from: https://elpais.com/sociedad/2021-02-06/la-ley-trans-desde-angulos-opuestos.html
