MADRID, July 17 — The rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have taken center stage ahead of Spain’s July 23 national elections.
Opinion polls predict Alberto Núñez Feijoo’s conservative Popular Party (PP) will win the election after four years of coalition rule by President Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists and the left-wing United We Can.
But Feijoo is likely to need the support of the far-right Vox party to form a government. Vox has been strongly opposed to LGBTQ rights.
Here is what you need to know.
Why are LGBTQ+ advocates concerned?
Local elections in May paved the way for PP-Vox coalitions in several Spanish municipalities.
Vox made headlines in May by hanging a banner from a Madrid building showing a hand throwing cards with symbols representing feminism, communism, the LGBTQ community and Catalan independence into a dumpster.
A new Vox-led authority in the small eastern town of Náquera said last month it would no longer display the rainbow-colored flag on public buildings.
In Valdemorillo, a small town near Madrid, the new PP-Vox council canceled the performance of a theatrical adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel ‘Orlando’, in which the protagonist changes sex.
What do the right-wing parties defend?
Both Vox and the PP have pledged to take action against some pro-LGBTQ measures approved by the left-wing government.
Both have vowed to change a self-determination law that took effect in March, allowing trans people over the age of 16 to change their legal gender simply by reporting to the official registry, rather than undergo two years of hormone treatment.
The law also allows children over the age of 14 to change their legal gender with parental approval.
The PP and Vox, as well as some women’s rights groups, argue that the legislation puts women at risk in single-sex spaces and have accused the left of forcing children into medical transition.
“Changing your sex is easier than getting a driver’s license,” Feijoo said. The leader of the Vox party, Santiago Abascal, said that «the ‘trans law’ discriminates against women.»
But the parties have not clarified which parts of the law they would repeal. The legislation also banned so-called conversion therapy, which aims to change a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity, and unnecessary surgery on intersex babies, who are not born exclusively male or female.
Both the PP and Vox declined to respond to requests for comment.
Vox has also proposed allowing parents to remove their children from sex education classes and lessons on sexual and gender diversity.
What are LGBTQ activists saying?
Spain is ranked fourth in the LGBTQ rights ranking of European countries by advocacy group ILGA-Europa, but LGBTQ activists said a PP-Vox government would roll back their rights.
Several international surveys place Spain among the most LGBTQ-friendly societies in the world, although hate crimes against the community increased by 68% between 2019 and 2021, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
A right-wing government could also attack LGBTQ rights by failing to implement existing laws, said Uge Sangil, head of the LGBTQ umbrella group, FELGTB.
“We could go back 40 years,” Sangil said.
For some, a PP-Vox coalition could also delay long-awaited measures such as including a non-binary option on identity documents.
“It would not only mean a setback in rights, but we would have practically no chance of moving forward,” said Darko Decimavilla, a non-binary activist.
reporting by OpenlyThe LGBTQ news website of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters.