The Government of the Generalitat has already prepared the draft trans law that seeks to offer a stable regulatory framework to those people, both adults and minors, who want to make their free gender self-determination effective. Regarding minors between 12 and 16 years of age, the articles include the figure of the mediator in the event that there is a discrepancy between the person who wants to make the transition and their parents or guardians. The purpose is, according to the document, that “the final decision respects the opinion of the minor and is shared by their legal representatives.” One of the questions that may arise in this scenario is whether a minor, at that age, between 12 and 16 years old (or even younger), can be aware of her sexual identity.
Like everything in life, there is no single answer. “Boys and girls between 12 and 16 years old have very variable opinions regarding what their awareness of sexual identity would be,” explains José R. Ubieto, psychoanalyst and professor at the UOC. “They may have different perspectives because this issue not only depends on age, but also on maturity,” he says.
It points to another determining variable, which is none other than the importance that this issue has had throughout the minor's life. “That is to say, the case of children who from a very young age have already considered this aspect and have expressed it through their clothing, for example, throughout their early and second childhood, is not the same as that of adolescents. "They go through (like all young people of that age) moments of hesitation about what their sexual identity is."
In this sense, he emphasizes that adolescence is a time of questioning where there are more questions than answers - “young people question their sexual identity, the meaning of life, their place in the world, their similarity or values in relation to others" - and that in a scenario of this type what should be avoided is taking “all statements or expressions of desires of adolescents as certainties, as solid convictions.”
For this reason, he is in favor of “establishing pauses and waiting intervals so that all these ideas can be developed.” He understands that this time should be extended until the age of 16: “If we are wondering if giving a cell phone to a minor before the age of 16 is a problem, it is a bit paradoxical that we are considering that these same children can at 12, 13 or 14 years old to decide on an intervention on his body.”
In a certain sense, this waiting time that Ubieto proposes agrees with what the clinical practice guidelines promote, says Dr. José Emilio Callejas, primary care pediatrician. "The Spanish Association of Pediatrics proposes blocking the development of puberty, of secondary sexual characteristics, to avoid phobias of these characteristics in the event that there is a gender identity other than chromosomal sex to give the minor time to make a decision and See what you want.”
In reality – Callejas maintains – it is giving time “so that the person can live that experience more and see if they want to make the physical transition.” Remember that between the ages of 12 and 16, it is the parents or legal guardians who will sign the consent – “of course, listening to what the law says to the minor,” he states – and that from the age of 16 the minor will count. with a more defined legal capacity.
Oriol García, coordinator of the Affirmative Psychology working group
He understands that the fact of considering the capacity of these minors to make that decision "already calls into question whether the minor wants it or not", and there he observes "an undercurrent of non-respect, transphobia." He defends that there are five-year-old children who already have it clear and that, when that happens, there is no need to add more doubts to the equation.
Since 2012, the Health Department has collected the queries it receives regarding this issue. In that year they did not have any, 4 in 2013 or 12 in 2014. However, they closed 2022 with 480 annual consultations. “The minor wants to know more about the trans fact, he tells us about his concerns and how he feels,” Ramon Escuriet, general director of the emotional, sexual and reproductive health plan of the Health Department, explains to La Vanguardia. He emphasizes that the increase has been accompanied by an increase in points of care and that not all consultations end in a physical transition. "On many occasions they just want advice," he points out.
Minors (between 10 and 14 years old) are advised individually. Also families, who want to know how they can help them. “Then we grouped both parties in the same meeting,” says Escuriet. For him, and in summary, "the interest of the system is to accompany in a safe space all minors who have this concern and need a consultation, whether due to their physical and/or mental state, to manage these emotions whether or not transition".
