Outstanding challenges in a post-equality era: The same-sex marriage and gender identity laws in Spain (original) (raw)
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2010
Although Spain is a modern European democracy, it has yet to come to terms with its multiple identities – whether national, ideological or sexual. Over the last few years, we have witnessed a battery of legal measures and of public and private attitudes which would seem to indicate that all gender or sexual identities have finally been accepted or, at least, respected. A look at different newspapers or other publications, as well as to the views expressed by common people, shows that we are waging a large-scale war over specific and highly ideological terms such as ‘abortion’, ‘homosexuality’, over the meaning of ‘family’, or over the scope of ‘gender violence’. In spite of the fact that the majority of Spanish society wishes to have more freedom, there is still fierce resistance against the recognition of (new) gender and sexual identities. There is an on-going private and public debate, and a bitter media campaign – orchestrated by the Church and the extreme right-wing (parties) –...
Redistribution and Recognition in Spanish Transgender Laws
Politics and Governance, 2020
Since 2012, 16 laws granting rights to trans individuals have been passed in Spanish regions. How can we assess the quality of these laws? Do they all profoundly and positively transform trans people's well-being? Do they tackle the economic marginalization of trans people? Do they have a symbolic impact? Using multidimensional criteria, I analyze trans-specific and LGBTI+ antidiscrimination policies to define trans-positivity in policymaking. This article uses feminist theory to judge this legislation's value, contrasting that with the insights of activists and policymakers interviewed for this purpose. Benefiting from the discussion between Nancy Fraser (1995) and Judith Butler (1997), the quality of trans legislation can be assessed by looking at both cultural recognition and economic redistribution. In addition, following Andrea Krizsan and Emanuela Lombardo (2013), I also analyze these laws through the lens of empowerment and transformation. Having made the elusive relationship between sexuality and political economy in trans laws in Spain visible, I call for greater imagination to envisage other sorts of political actions for trans people.
Critical Review of International Social and Political …, 2007
Equality policies in Spain have increasingly developed since the creation of the National Women’s Agency (1983). Over a ten-year period Spain has achieved European standards in equality policies in terms of institutions, budget and legitimization. In a short time Spain moved from a dictatorship to European Union membership, which has brought about enormous changes regarding women’s roles and rights. Other relevant changes concern the political organization of the state: the 1978 Constitution sets a model of regional administrative autonomy, neither centralized nor federal, in which each region has developed gender institutions. Gender-equality policies constituted the framework for the development of gay and lesbian policies. Both gender equality and gay and lesbian policies have evolved differently at the national and regional levels, with a trend of inclusiveness, more creative policies and institutions at the regional and local levels. In the meantime, the national debate has concentrated on same-sex marriage, while sexuality is not a topic within gender equality policies. This paper argues that the progressive inclusiveness of lesbians within the equality agenda and the new intersectional perspectives, alongside gay marriage shows an evolution of Spanish citizenship models, largely influenced by the European Union context.
LOVE AND THE STATE: GAY MARRIAGE IN SPAIN
On 30 June 2005, the Spanish Parliament approved Law 13/2005, which amends the Civil Code to permit same-sex marriage. This formal equality measure put Spain in the spotlight of the international media. It is the culmination of a series of developments spanning from the last years of the Franco regime (which ended in 1975), through the enactment of anti-discrimination measures in 1995, to the recent fight for kinship recognition. It also follows a recent shift, from 1998 to 2005, towards the enactment of same-sex partnership laws at regional level, the approval of same-sex marriage and finally, the approval of a ‘gender identity law’ (2007). This legislative note assesses the context in which the new law on same-sex marriage has been enacted. I argue that although same-sex marriage has been represented by many activists and politicians in Spain as a gender neutral contract, it has the potential for differential impacts on lesbians and gay men, and further research and debates are needed in this area.
Working from an interdisciplinary perspective, this article examines the development of gender identity categories and the institutionalization of sex-reassignment procedures based on two different qualitative studies carried out during a 10-year span with transexual and transgendered people, activists and legal experts. In the context of the legal, social and political frameworks regulating gender migration in Spain in the last decade, the data reveal the proliferation of gender identity categories amidst increasing medicalization of trans folk, boundary policing and a growing tension between medical and political understandings of gender migration.
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This paper draws on a qualitative research project concerning the relationship between trans people's mental health and well-being, pressures, social policy and heteronormative gender norms in Spain. Drawing on interviews carried out with trans people from all regions and generations, we utilize an ecological framework to illustrate how a socially entrenched heteronormativity, pressures trans people to comply with gender norms that impact negatively upon their mental health and well being. The paper argues that the legal changes in Spain are not enough in themselves to bring about social change, but rather, Spanish social policy makers also need to challenge gender categorization, and work towards transforming public discourses on gender issues if trans people are to gain full social recognition and equal social rights.
Transsexualism in Spain: a Cultural and Legal Perspective
Sociological Research Online, 2007
In this paper I will present an overview of the current legal, social and political situation of transsexual and transgendered people in Spain. The study is based on qualitative data gathered from in-depth interviews with transsexual people, transgendered activists and legal experts in Spain, including some aspects of a crosscultural comparison between Spain and the UK. The empirical study accounts for the development of social policies related to sex-reassignment and their evolution in the last decade in Spain, as well as for transsexual associations and activism, issues of social exclusion and prostitution.
2013
This article examines the Argentine LGBT movement within a framework of two longer-term processes. First, an enlargement of rights that is typical of post-transitional situations, with the Argentine peculiarity that, a quarter of a century after its transition to democracy, the country experienced a strong resurgence of the human rights discourse while judicial procedures were reopened to deal with human rights violations committed under the 1976 -83 dictatorship. Second, the global widening of the concept and practice of human rights and the fight against discrimination -including those related to sexual orientation and gender identity.