A prominent trans activist organization in Spain has put forward a proposal for legislation that would guarantee transgender people pensions upon reaching 65. The pensions would be issued regardless of whether the transgender applicant had ever paid into the pension throughout their life.
The proposal was put forward by Federation Platform for Trans Rights, who presented it last week to the parliamentary groups of the Congress of Deputies. The group, known colloquially as Plataforma Trans, was founded in 2015 “with the aim of uniting specifically trans collectives and entities and to fight for a new trans law that recognizes gender self-determination and depathologises trans identities.” During the meeting, all parties sent representatives except the right-wing Popular Party and Vox Party.
Calling it the “Trans Memory Law,” the policy would grant people who identify as transgender a lifetime pension, along with priority access to public housing and housing assistance programs.
This was the second meeting involving the Federation Platform for Trans Rights and top Spanish politicians, indicating the group may soon see their plans realized.
During the previous meeting, the Federation Platform met with representatives from the governing Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, the SUMAR Coalition, the United We Can Change Europe Party, the Basque Nationalist Party, among others, and asked them to jointly register the Trans Memory Law.
The “historic need” for the law was discussed during the meeting, to provide a form of reparations for “the violence suffered by trans and gender-dissident people during the dictatorship and post-Franco regime.”
The president of the Federation Platform, a trans-identified male named Mar Cambrollé, declared at the time that “the Franco dictatorship and post-Francoism violated the most fundamental rights of trans and gender-diverse people, who not only suffered the worst effects of Franco and post-Francoism with deprivation of freedom, but also suffered [exile].” Cambrollé claimed that trans-identified people were suffering from “extreme poverty” as a result of the legacy of Francisco Franco, a fascist leader who ruled Spain until 1975.
Cambrollé added that “an advanced and democratic society has to repair this systematic violation of a forgotten population, who put their bodies and who, with their visibility, also contributed to bring democracy, widening it with plurality and diversity.”
The lifetime pension proposed by the Federation Platform demands the value represent an economic benefit of the same amount “as the minimum Social Security pension for pensioners over the age of 65 without family responsibilities,” alleging that “the situation experienced by trans, gay and lesbian people who did not conform to the normative roles imposed on men and women during the Franco regime unleashed persecution, imprisonment, stigma and denial of fundamental rights.”
The pension would be able to be collected in addition to any other benefits, employment income, personal or corporate assets, or commercial activities, and would be increased by 50% for those who had previously been imprisoned under the Vagrants and Criminals Act, which targeted “habitual vagrants,” pimps, prostitutes, drunks, drug addicts, and those who supplied alcohol to minors.
Initially introduced in 1933, the law remained in force during Franco’s dictatorship, but made no reference to homosexuals until a reform introduced in 1954. The term “transgender,” however, is not referenced in the law.
The group tells The Objective that people who identified as trans were “discriminated against, pushed aside and for a long time forgotten, and thus consigned to oblivion” during this time.
“These conditions, which were structural in nature, prevented them from having the same opportunities as the rest of the population, pushing them to the margins of society and social exclusion, with a major impact on their physical and mental health. Today, in the twilight of their lives, they are once again hit by the extreme precariousness resulting from a dictatorial regime that was merciless and the neglect of democracy,” it said in a statement.
The proposal caused quite a stir on social media, with many Spanish X users denouncing the apparent preferential treatment trans-identified individuals were set to receive from politicians.
Calling it a “salary for being trans,” one X user added: “And to top it all, priority in public housing, because there is no one more vulnerable than “they/them.”
“Special pensions for trans* people just because they are trans*. And regardless of their income. Priority access for transgender people to public housing and support programmes. What Plataforma Trans are asking for is called privileges,” another remarked.
Pensiones especiales para trans* por el mero hecho de serlo. Y al margen de sus ingresos. Acceso prioritario de las personas transgénero al parque público de vivienda y a los programas de ayuda.
— La guerra mas larga de la historia (@GuerraMasLarga) September 8, 2024
Lo que pide @PlataformaTrans se llama privilegios.https://t.co/n8GP9DnDIA