• Measure helps transsexuals bridge two-year lag in obtaining updated DNI
• Decree based on non-discrimination law assists adults, minors, immigrants
The Basque Country has become the first of Spain’s autonomous regions to provide temporary identification cards to transsexuals who have undergone a sex-change operation or can show they are in the process of sexual reassignment and are awaiting their final civil identity documents.
Nationwide, Spanish federal legislation in place since 2007 stipulates that transgender individuals must show proof that they have been undergoing hormone treatment for a period of at least two years prior to having their sexual identification changed in the civil registry and on their identification documents.
To cover the two-year gap, the Basque government has approved a decree based on the region’s 2012 non-discrimination legislation that will provide individuals undergoing sexual reassignment therapy and treatment with a transitional identity document from the first day that treatment has begun.
Activists with the Basque Association for the Defense and Integration of Transsexual Persons, Errespetuz, say the change is essential in order to help transsexual individuals sort through the various public and private bureaucracies of daily living, without having their sexual identity called into question because their identification documents correspond to their previous sexual identity.
Read the Full Story in Spanish at El País >>
