Reframing the timeless debate about the legal implications of transsexuality. Special reference to the situation of minors after Spanish Constitutional Court judgment 99/2019 of 18 July 2019

Authors

  • Elena Atienza-Macías Universidad de Deusto

Keywords:

Transsexuality, transgender minors, female genital mutilation, circumcision, sexual rights, right to privacy, human rights, Transexualidad, menores transexuales, derechos sexuales, derecho a la intimidad, derechos humanos

Abstract

By virtue of the existing laws and regulations in Spain (i.e., Law 3/2007, of 15 March, regulating the register rectification of the entry related to a person’s sex) any person of Spanish nationality, of legal age and with sufficient capacity to do so, may request the register rectification for sex change. A new aspect regarding the legal age was introduced not long ago. In this regard, the Constitutional Court of Spain in judgment 99/2019, 18 July 2019, declared unconstitutional article 1.1 of the aforementioned Law 3/2007 since it does not allow the sex change in the registry (and, consequently, the name) to minors, who, however, have sufficient maturity and live in a steady state of transsexuality. The Court states that this prohibition implies a disproportionate interference in minors right to privacy and it is contrary to the principle that guarantees them a space for the free development of his/her identity. Under the pretext of the mentioned landmark case-law we will highlight a series of controversial issues concerning sexual rights. Obviously, this question is still subject to debate and has lost none of its urgency.

A tenor de la regulación que, en la actualidad, rige en el Estado español (esto es, la Ley 3/2007, de 15 de marzo, reguladora de la rectificación registral de la mención relativa al sexo de las personas) toda persona de nacionalidad española, mayor de edad y con capacidad suficiente para ello, puede solicitar la rectificación de la mención registral del sexo. Una novedad importante respecto del requisito de mayoría de edad acaecía hace no mucho tiempo. Así las cosas, el Tribunal Constitucional en Sentencia 99/2019 de 18 de julio de 2019, consideraba inconstitucional que el art. 1.1. de la mencionada Ley 3/2007) no permita cambiar el sexo registral (y, consiguientemente, el nombre) a los menores de edad, que, no obstante, tengan “suficiente madurez” y se encuentren en una “situación estable de transexualidad”, por entender que dicha prohibición supone una injerencia desproporcionada en su derecho a la intimidad y es contraria al principio que les garantiza un espacio de libertad en la conformación de su identidad. Este singular posicionamiento jurisprudencial nos da pie a abordar en este trabajo una serie de controvertidos conceptos objeto de eterno debate.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1187

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Views 393
Downloads:
PDF 282
XML 16


Author Biography

Elena Atienza-Macías, Universidad de Deusto

Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities), at the Chair in Law and the Human Genome Research Group, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU. Email address: elena.atienza@ehu.eus

Downloads

Published

01-06-2021

How to Cite

Atienza-Macías, E. (2021) “Reframing the timeless debate about the legal implications of transsexuality. Special reference to the situation of minors after Spanish Constitutional Court judgment 99/2019 of 18 July 2019”, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 11(3), pp. 930–947. Available at: https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1253 (Accessed: 28 March 2024).