In Spain, there are two progressive laws on gender issues. One dates back to 2004 and is intended to protect women from male violence (machist violence), including increased penalties for the aggressors.
The other (ley trans) has been in force since last year and is aimed at gender self-determination. According to this law, citizens aged 16 and over are free to choose their gender and have it officially registered. To do so, they do not have to make any physical changes or change their name.
A man’s threats against his ex-partner are now a dispute between women
Now bizarre cases have come to light in which violent men try to avoid prosecution under the first law by ley trans registered as women. This legal loophole is currently causing debate in Spain.
A few days ago, a court in Seville that is responsible for dealing with male violence handed over the prosecution of a man with a previous conviction and who had been on record for years to a normal investigative court. From a formal legal point of view, the man’s threats against his ex-partner, which have apparently been going on for years, are now a dispute between women – far more harmless than it is machist violence were.
According to media reports, the public prosecutor’s office announced that it would examine whether the official gender reassignment can be contested, but such a process takes time. After all, people’s decisions to change their gender should not simply be able to be reversed by a third party.
Those who suffer are women threatened by violence
In a similar case in the Basque Country, the local public prosecutor’s office requested last Tuesday that the reclassification of a violent offender as a woman be revoked. As a man, the aggressor, according to El Pais a police officer threatened his wife with a knife and threatened to harm their children. When he declared himself to be his wife at the police station, he kept his body and his name.
The main victims of these cases, which have so far been sporadic, are the women affected by the violence, because the law against male violence not only provides for harsher penalties for perpetrators, but also for assistance and protection measures for the victims. Measures that the women affected in Seville and the Basque Country are no longer entitled to – for formal legal reasons.
The cases have not only a legal but also a political dimension. Right-wingers and conservatives were and are bitter opponents of the ley transThe law comes from the Ministry of Equality under the then left-wing minister Irene Montero of the Podemos party, who has been out of office since the summer 2023 elections.
Montero was also responsible for the highly controversial “only if it is“Law (only yes means yes), which criminalizes sexual acts without the express consent of both partners. Due to a technical error, this law led to more than 1,000 convicted rapists being released early from prison – a political penalty for the opponents of the left-wing socialist coalition of Pedro Sánchez.
The problem is the combination of the two laws
At the ley trans The situation is different. The unpleasant side effect is not caused by a gap in the legal text, but by the combination with the law against machist violenceagainst male violence. In order to curb physical and psychological violence against women, the law provides for special courts and public prosecutors who specialize in the issue. Three things are to be achieved: more protection for women, support for affected women and punishment of corresponding crimes.
It was the first and only law of its kind in Europe when it was passed in 2004. Instead of “family violence”, as it is still called in other countries today, it gave women special protection. In addition to increased penalties for male perpetrators of violence, it provides for a series of preventive measures.
In Spain, for example, many town halls have posted information about the number of male acts of violence that have recently occurred in the municipality. The telephone number 016 for affected women is available 24 hours a day throughout the country. A special situation center in Madrid tracks and collects cases of male violence throughout the country and publishes a report three times a year.
In Germany, in April this year, a ley trans A similar law on gender self-determination was passed (although minors still need counseling and parental consent). However, violent men cannot use this as an instrument to protect themselves as “women” from special prosecution through a law against male violence. In Germany, as in many other countries, it is called “family violence” in a gender-neutral way.