The Constitutional Court will debate, in its plenary sessions from Tuesday, April 29, and on, the constitutional appeal regarding certain articles of Law 4/2023, of February 28, for the real and effective equality of trans people and for the guarantee of the rights of LGBTI people, the so- called Trans Law.
As the recent ruling of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has emphatically pointed out, the women protections in our legal system only make sense if the category «sex» is understood in a strictly biological sense. Any other interpretation would invalidate the guarantees of protection for victims of gender-based violence, women’s right to safe spaces and to sports categories differentiated by sex, the reliability of statistical data, the duty of parity in institutions and electoral lists, and other similarly relevant aspects.
Alianza Contra el Borrado de las Mujeres/Alliance Against Women´s Erasure also points out how the Spanish Equality Law or international treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) refer to discrimination «on the basis of sex,» this being the concept that serves as the keystone of all anti-discrimination policies for women.
A law that allows changing registered sex without requiring a diagnosis of dysphoria or any other requirement is not a protective one and jeopardises the legal certainty that is required in any law. The implementation of the so-called Trans Law has made clear that any man can self-identify as a woman without any requirement other than his will, and even without changing his name or appearance. The cases of abusers who have eluded the Law against Gender-Based Violence, and the lack of protection this entails for their victims, highlight the loopholes sex self-id has produced in the fight against gender-based violence.
Self-ID gives carte blanche to opportunism by allowing, as many cases have already happened, men to illegitimately benefit from certain physical tests to apply for police or firefighter positions, positions reserved for women on equal electoral lists, and other affirmative action measures for women.
As to the articles of the law referring to minors, Alianza Contra el Borrado de las Mujeres calls on the Constitutional Court to prioritize the medical principle «First, do no harm» and to impose caution before proceeding with irreversible medical and surgical treatments for minors and young people. Without a diagnosis of dysphoria, without professional support, vulnerable young people and adolescents are abandoned to decisions whose consequences they cannot understand and that will affect their entire adult lives. As the Cass report in the United Kingdom has rightly pointed out, in 80-85% of cases, minors will overcome gender confusion once they reach puberty.
Finally, Alianza Contra el Borrado de las Mujeres maintains that Judge and former Minister of Justice Juan Carlos Campo, is not the appropriate person to draft the report to be debated. Campo is tainted from the moment he must issue a vote on a law in which he actively participated as Minister of Justice during its negotiation process.
Based on this criterion, Alianza Contra el Borrado de las Mujeres believes that Campo should be refused or, in any case, should be compelled to abstain. Alianza Contra el Borrado de las Mujeres requests the President of the Constitutional Court to remove this magistrate as rapporteur of the appeals filed, since his participation jeopardizes the impartiality of the constitutional appeal process.
28 de abril de 2025
Alianza Contra el Borrado de las Mujeres – Alliance Against Women´s Erasure
