Yzabelle Bostyn
ACTIVISTS in Spain are outraged after the leading socialist party has announced plans to drop Q from the LGBTQ+ acronym and ban trans women from female sports competitions.
PSOE, Spain’s ruling socialist party will drop the term ‘queer’ from their consideration of the LGBTIQ+ community and ban trans women from female sports.
It comes as the party announces plans to amend their ‘Ley Trans’ (Trans Law) in an attempt to placate ‘traditional feminists’.
‘Queer’ covers a range of sexual orientations and gender identities and is often used by people who feel they do not fit into strict categories.
The amendment also means ‘no one of masculine sex’ will be able to participate in women’s sporting events.
Announced in Sevilla by President Pedro Sanchez, the changes have reopened the trans debate some three years after PSOE gave the right to self-determination.
The decision has prompted criticism from activists and politicians, including former Equality Minister Irene Montero.
She said on X: “A trans woman is a woman. Whatever PSOE says, this is transphobia. The rights of trans people are human rights. Anything else is not classical feminism or left wing politics, it’s just transphobia.”
Activists from La Platforma Trans (The Trans Platform) have also spoken out, saying the ‘perverse use of feminism’ is similar to how ‘right wingers say migrants are the cause of crime.’
“When a progressive party falls into the same ideology as the ultra-right, pointing to us as harbingers of social evil, it’s very dangerous for our democracy and the fight towards equality,” said Mar Cambrolle, president of the association.
She also said the decision legitimises the abuse of trans women, which has been on the rise in recent years.
“Numerous international bodies such as Human Rights Watch are against the exclusion of trans women from women’s sport, it deepens discrimination and stigmatisation,” she continued.
Meanwhile, ‘feminist’ platform ‘Against the erasure of Women’ has urged the Government: “Don’t let this be good for nothing. Now you need to change the Trans Law, the Sports Law and the 14 regional laws that allow the participation of self-identified women to compete in women’s sporting events.”
The Spanish government originally approved the ‘Trans Law’ which would allow people over 14 to change their sex in 2021.
It was passed after three months of tough negotiations between PSOE and the opposition and pushed forward the rights of trans women in health, education and work settings.
