A member of the police force in Basque Country, Spain, has been arrested for attempting to murder his wife in front of the couple’s two daughters. Following the horrific crime, the family learned that Jose* had changed his legal sex in an apparent effort to avoid harsher penalties for domestic violence.
The Basque Government Security Department has confirmed that the attack took place in San Sebastián in the early hours of Saturday morning. Jose threatened to harm his daughters, one of whom is an infant, before grabbing a kitchen knife “of considerable dimensions” and attempting to harm his wife with it. Fortunately, the woman was able to locate some pepper spray that was in the house and used it to defend herself and the baby by pepper spraying Jose in the face. She grabbed the baby and ran, but not before Jose took the other child hostage.
Fleeing to the Martutene prison, which is located very close to their home, the woman told the officers stationed outside what had happened. Immediately, a squad of the local police, known as Ertzaintza, went to the residence where the man had barricaded himself in with his eldest daughter.
The officers managed to gain access to the house and, after verifying that the girl was alive, arrested Jose as the alleged perpetrator of an attempted homicide.
After being taken to see a judge, Jose, who was on medical leave from his job with the police force at the time of his crime, was released with precautionary measures and with the obligation to appear when required by the judicial authority.
According to El Correo, Jose requested to be treated according to the protocols established for the arrest of women, revealing that he had changed his sex marker to “female” last November without his family or friends being aware. Though he had not changed his name or appearance, Jose is recorded as a “female” in the Civil Registry.
While unconfirmed, there is some speculation that Jose changed his legal sex to avoid certain penalties for the domestic violence he had been long subjecting his wife and daughters to.
In Spain, males who assault or murder women can be charged with “gender based violence,” a specific crime which emerged in Spain to tackle the nation’s overwhelming struggle with femicide and domestic violence. The crime recognizes a strength difference between males and females, and entitles female victims to certain resources – such as with filing for separation proceedings, custody, or other factors.
As Jose had changed his legal gender marker before committing the crime, the only remaining option was to charge him with domestic violence – a broader category of intimate partner aggression. Both gender-based violence and domestic violence are similarly criminal matters, but the latter removes the strength distinction.
The Prosecutor’s Office is currently investigating the case, and may ask the common court to defer Jose’s case to a specialized court, but to do so, the office has to argue that a fraudulent change of sex registration took place and, if so, ask for its annulment.
One of the factors the Prosecutor’s Office could allude to in order to prove Jose made a fraudulent change is that he did not change his appearance or name, and hid the change from those around him.
This is the second case in the past month where a man in Spain changed his gender marker in an apparent attempt to avoid harsher penalties for crimes against women.
As previously reported by Reduxx on August 14, a victim of domestic violence in Redondela, Spain, was shocked to learn that her abusive partner had changed his legal sex, thus protecting him from certain charges associated with male violence against women. The story first came to light at the end of July, from the small town of Redondela – a community in the northwest.
When officers arrived to arrest the man for harming his wife, he boasted that he was “now a woman,” and showed them his identity documents to prove it. He had not changed his legal name or appearance in any way.
Similar cases have continuously emerged over the past two years as concerns of “trans fraud” grow throughout the nation, which consists of men changing their sex marker in the registry simply to obtain legal or professional benefits.
“Trans fraud” appears to stem from recent changes to Spanish law which significantly relaxed the regulations surrounding obtaining legal document changes. In February of 2022, the Spanish government enacted what is colloquially known as the “Trans Law,” which instituted a “no questions asked” policy for those who declared they were transgender. The law made it easier for individuals to change their name and legal sex, hastening the process for applicants and removing any medical or diagnostic prerequisites.
Since the institution of the law, Spain has seen an explosion in males changing their legal sex while keeping their “male” names and appearances.
The changes appear to not just be motivated by a desire to avoid criminal penalties, but also to obtain financial benefits.
As previously reported by Reduxx, in Ceuta, a small Spanish autonomous city located in the North African coast, 37 male civil servants are known to have changed their registered sex in order to obtain benefits assigned to women. Most of these men do not change their name, and retain a “male-presenting” appearance.