¿Bent Identity? Legislation about gender identity in Madrid

In one of the recent investigations made by the Family and Social Matters Council; the Information and Attention to Homosexuals and Transsexuals Program, looked at the paperwork for change of identity due to transsexuality, which can be made in two ways.[1]

If a person wants to change their name, but not their sex, they have to complete an application based on transsexuality. They are limited to ambiguous names, i.e. those that can be used by both men and women. They are not permitted to choose an exclusively male or female name. Civil Inscription of Madrid provide a list of possible names. In cases such as these, it is not necessary to have certification of gender reassignment surgery.

If a person wants to change both their name and sex, they must have had surgery, and have a medical report that recognizes their transsexuality. This process requires both a lawyer and an attorney. In the case of some female to male transsexuals, change of sex is permitted provided the individual has had both a mastectomy and hysterectomy, but without the need for further surgery.

This investigation was made before Law 5585, Law of Gender Identity. We don’t know if these practices are still enforced, but according to a recent report made by some transsexual organizations, after a year of this new law, they say that the law “has permitted many transsexual people to change their names and sex without any surgery”. However, organizations such as Transexualia criticized the requirements for a report saying that a person had gender dysphoria, or that an individual had been undergoing treatment for at least two years. Transexualia said that transsexuality is still considered a mental illness in law, which is why the law demands these medical reports before a change of name and sex. Transexualia that gender is not considered as part of a person’s rights to determine their own identity. This law makes an exception, and does not create a new form specifically for transsexual people.

Another aspect of the law that the trans community has questioned is the need for two years’ treatment, without taking into consideration people who could need less time to change, dependent on their personal physiognomy. The law should consider that each person’s body is different and be more flexible about that requirement.

Some other unresolved vindications are:

- Allowing foreign residents to have access to the law.

- That the Public Health System can guarantee and afford gender reassignment treatments and surgeries.

- A lack of awareness of violence against trans people, and the punishment of any act of ‘transphobia’ and discrimination in a exemplary way.

This situation makes us reflect on sexual definition; whether it is made as a free choice or forced by the law in order to have access to legal recognition. Unfortunately, legal recognition limits trans identities and does not allow them to continue being ambiguous. If a trans person wants to be in-between both sexes, they are not allowed to change their name and sex in this legal procedure. Additionally, if a person doesn’t want to have potentially life-threatening surgery, they don’t have choice in this law, because the law forces them to be either a man or a woman.

Even though this law is a step forward for LGBT rights it is also an illusion of freedom because it limits trans identities. Not only because it requires gender reassignment or medical treatment, but also because it requires that a doctor allows this change of identity. Doctors determine that our identity is real, and have the power to make it ‘normal’. They shouldn’t have the power to control something as personal as our identity. The State still considers transsexuality a pathological disease, and they determine that in society, there can be only women and men, and so we return to the beginning of the problem.

This law should confirm the responsibility of the State to offer health services for gender reassignment, since this treatment needs professional medical supervision. Currently, the State supports a procedure whereby unprofessional inexperienced people provide services which could have life-threatening consequences. Additionally, those who can’t afford this gender reassignment treatments shouldn’t be discriminated against by law. Public health is an important requirement for the success of this legal initiative.

Access to a health service is not only important because of sexual surgery; it is also very important for a trans population that has suffered discrimination from this public institution, even when lives were in danger. It is necessary to conduct medical investigations about gender reassignment, in order to have different paths of treatment according to a person’s individual physical characteristics, and not an inflexible, general procedure, that doesn’t change to meet a person’s needs. Finally, it is part of ones’ human rights that any medical procedure has to be carried out in a safe and secure manner.

It is important to add that to date, gender reassignment surgeries are not 100% successful. The end results are still deficient and individuals have to sacrifice their own sexual pleasure. Feminine transsexual surgeries have better results than masculine transsexual surgeries because the end results are more likely to enable the individual to experience sexual pleasure, however, they are not totally satisfactory.

So we come back to the beginning. Is it necessary to give up pleasure in order to adopt one of two binary identities and have the right to legal recognition? Is this a free or a bent identity?

References
Oficial Bulletin of Spain Goverment: http://www.boe.es/g/es/bases_datos/doc.php?coleccion=iberlex&id=2007/05585
Donwload: Spain: Act. 3/2007 Regulating the rectification of the entry related to the sex of persons in the civil register

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[1] Martín Romero, Dolores. La transexualidad, diversidad de una realidad. Madrid: Consejería de Familia y Asuntos Sociales, 2006. Cuadernos técnicos de servicios sociales. This book was resume at Bulletin T-Informa N°4 (march 2008).