Transgender children and adolescents They have to wait until they reach the age of majority to register their sex change.
But it seems that the situation will change and they will be able to do so before the age of 18, after annulling the Constitutional Court (TC) article 1 of Law 3/2007, regulating the registration of the mention regarding the sex of people.
According to the ruling of the TC, the article is unconstitutional, so that minors that have the "Enough maturity and are in a stable situation of transsexuality", may record the change of sex in the records and reflect it in their National Identity Document (DNI).
A long battle of families
The TC has estimated the unconstitutionality raised in March 2016 by the Supreme Court, in view of a lawsuit filed in 2014 by the parents of a minor. He was registered at birth in March 2002 with sex and female name, but a few years later he chose a male name when he felt that sex.
Although he is accepted for his social and family environment, it is not for which he is officially recognized, so that his parents have fought in all judicial instances to achieve the rectification of his son's name and sex in the Civil Registry.
In Babies and more, neither boy nor girl: this is how some parents raise their children with a gender neutralThe resolution, as explained by El Español, is justified by "the intense affectation of personal dignity that occurs in cases where the gender with which one lives does not coincide with the registration." And this is necessary to obtain all official documents (from the ID to medical card) and "conditions everyday actions in the school, sports or social field".
The Court dismisses as disproportionate that it is required to wait for the age of majority to rectify sex in the Registry automatically. He explains that we must establish "mechanisms that allow respect for the fundamental rights of minors who have sufficient maturity and live in a stable way over the years their transsexuality.
A long way to go
At least that is what transgender associations and parents of trans children think.
This resolution has to be developed and reflected in a sentence that will be published in the next few days. Although it is true that in recent years, some magistrates had already made a broader interpretation of the 2007 law and approved the change of sex in the registry.
In 2016, in Valencia, a judge allowed the change in the DNI of a child, understanding that this reference to adults did not exclude that minors could do so through their representatives.
In Babies and more "We are wrong to assign sex": the letter from the parents of a five-year-old transsexual girl to the other parents of the schoolBut the cancellation of article one is not enough, according to trans groups. Article 4 provides that in order to change sex, the person must have been "diagnosed of gender dysphoria" and credit it "through a report from a doctor or clinical psychologist".
This point must still be fulfilled, and the associations (as explained by El País), want to be deleted because "It is a pathologization and attempt against the dignity of trans people."
Mar Cambrollé, president of the Platform for Trans rights, asks for the approval of a comprehensive Trans Law that addresses legal identity "without age limit and without subjecting identity to any medical report".
During the last legislature, Congress has already given the green light to a proposed law of the PSOE, which required that for the new Registry only young people were required to submit an express declaration of their willingness to change sex.
In addition, he collected that this recognition of identity "in no case" may be subject to having received "psychological, psychiatric or medical treatments". Y, if there is opposition from a parent, a judge must decide whether to accept the petition always taking into account "the best interest of the minor".
Also for the son of Natalia Ventín, president of the Chrysalis association, who took her case to the Constitutional Court, the resolution is late: since she has turned 18 and "The damage suffered cannot be repaired."
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