SPAIN: Transgender Police Officers File Discrimination Complaint After Being Charged “As Men” After Domestic Violence Arrests

A group of transgender police officers in Spain has filed a complaint against the Civil Guard in Ceuta, alleging they were subject to discrimination after being arrested and charged with a specific domestic violence-related crime that only males can commit. Five officers, all of whom are men who identify as women, claim they should not have been charged with “gender based violence” because they had changed their legal sex marker to “female.”

In 2004, Spain introduced the “Organic Law 1/2004 on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence” to address the nation’s skyrocketing rates of violence against women. The law established specialized courts, stronger criminal penalties in certain cases, and increased protections and support for female victims who were financially or physically vulnerable.

While general domestic violence legislation still exists and can be applied in all other cases, the 2004 law introduced specific “gender based violence” charges that could only be applied in cases where a male had abused his female partner.

On October 18, a group of five transgender police officers in Ceuta filed a complaint against the Civil Guard alleging they had been the victims of discrimination after being arrested and charged with “gender based violence” after being ar abusing their female partners. According to The Objective, the men claim the charges did not apply in their case because they were legally female.

The main case in the complaint concerns a transgender police officer named David Osuna, who was arrested and charged with gender-based violence after being reported to police by his partner for an incident of alleged abuse involving their youngest child. Osuna claims that his case should have been treated as general domestic violence, specifically as a female abusing another female, because he had legally changed his sex and identified as a “woman.” As a result, the complaint claims that Osuna’s rights had been violated by the Civil Guard treating him and charging him as a male.

The complaint requests an investigation into potential criminal or disciplinary liability on the part of the charging officers involved, as well as clarification of the criteria applied when a person under investigation is legally registered as female.

Osuna, along with the other trans-identified male police officers involves in the complaint, are members of the Non-Normative Trans Police Union, or Trans No Normativos (TNN). The organization predominantly consists of officers with “traditionally masculine appearances and male names” who identify as “women” and have changed their legal sex marker to “female.” Most of the men involved identify as “lesbians.”

Non-Normative Trans Police Union Representatives.

Some trans rights activist groups have condemned TNN as a “fraudulent” trans group, and asserted that they are simply males attempting to exploit Spain’s Trans Law (Ley Trans). The law, passed on February 16, 2024, granted anyone over the age of 16 the right to change the gender reflected on their official documents without any social or medical proof of transitioning. While women’s rights advocates expressed concern with the result the law would have on males being given access to women’s spaces, including domestic violence shelters and prisons, the law went into effect on May 2 of that year.

However, TNN spokesperson Daniel Gallardo has maintained that they are not committing fraud and that criticism of the organization constitutes “transphobia” or “trans-exclusionary hatred.”

Despite having previously championed the law, the FELGTBI+, a Spanish LGBT+ activist organization, has reportedly asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office to take action against TNN and its members for allegedly “pretending to be trans in a grotesque manner.” However, the group did not specify what laws TNN had broken or whether any revisions to the Trans Law were required to prevent these alleged cases of “trans fraud.”

Since the law went into effect, there have been multiple reported cases involving violent men seeking lower criminal penalties after changing their legal sex marker.

As reported by Reduxx in 2022, a man in Spain who physically abused his female partner for refusing to participate in his sexual fetishes managed to avoid charges of gender-based violence by legally changing his identification to “female” and adopting a woman’s name.

In another case from 2024, a former police officer in San Sebastián who hastily changed his legal sex was charged “as a woman” after attempting to murder his wife and two daughters.

A former police officer in Spain appears to have changed his legal sex in an effort to avoid harsher penalties for attempting to murder his wife and two daughters. This is the second case of suspected "trans fraud" in less than two weeks. https://t.co/2NWTV1eLPY

In other cases branded “trans fraud” by trans activists, male civil servants have reportedly changed their legal sex marker in order to access benefits reserved for female workers or mothers. Some of these men are reportedly associated with TNN.

As previously reported by Reduxx, a 35-year-old Army corporal in Ceuta changed his legal sex to “female” after deciding he identified as an “intersex bigender” person. Roberto Perdigones says he first discovered that changing his registered sex would afford him significant professional and financial benefits after reading an update in the National Police Exam syllabus with a list of “possible” gender identities one may have. Perdigones found a gender description he felt he matched, so pursued the change.

After changing his legal sex, Perdigones qualified for a mother’s pension as he was reclassified as a “woman” with a child.

“By changing my sex, as I have been informed, my pension has gone up. Because women receive more in retirement pensions to compensate for the inequality. In addition, I get 15% more because I have a child,” he boasted to local media.

The region of Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish territory located on the coast of Morocco, has experienced a particularly disproportionate surge of male civil servants changing their legal gender marker to “female.”

Ceuta has a population of just 85,000 inhabitants, 4,500 of whom are members of the Security Forces and the military. While in other parts of Spain, judges reserve the right to deny a change of legal sex when they conclude that the applicant is acting with “spurious intent,” Ceuta is an autonomous area that does not have such regulations.

Judges in Ceuta who deny legal sex changes could be charged with criminal prevarication. Many believe the combination of a large military male population and little-to-no repercussions for pursuing a gender change, even just to obtain employment benefits, have resulted in the phenomenon exploding in the small region.

Reduxx is your source of pro-woman, pro-child safeguarding news and commentary. We’re 100% independent! Support our mission by making a donation.