The Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities of Spain (FEREDE) has published a report on how regional regulations and educational protocols on the protection and equality of LGTBIQ groups affect the health of affected minors and the fundamental rights of their parents.

“This report seeks to analyse the different regional educational protocols and consider their impact on the minors affected and on the right to freedom of conscience, thought and belief, as well as on the exercise of parental authority and the right of parents to educate their children’, explains FEREDE in the presentation of the report.

After analysing those protocols, FEREDE observed that many consider that the prevailing ‘best interests of the minor’ coincide with the favouring and implementation of the social transition of gender, seeing it a priori as beneficial for any minor who shows signs of non-conformity with his or her sexual identity.

This means that the measures to take are focused on promoting and facilitating that transition, without taking into account the age or maturity of the minors, without assessing the possible existence of other problems, and even without considering the criteria and consent of the parents, prior to the implementation of such measures.

There is no uniformity of protocols in all regions, and some apply measures that are much more restrictive of parental rights than others.

This is why FEREDE, in addition to the report, has approached the regions with the most restrictive educational protocols, requesting their modification based on the reasons set out in the report.

Currently, those regions are Castilla la Mancha, the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja, Aragon and the autonomous city of Melilla.

FEREDE believes that some protocols “may violate the fundamental right of parents to choose the moral and religious education of their children and the right to religious freedom”.

“It is necessary to implement more evaluative, psychological and reflective models, with parental consent, to better protect the best interests of the child”, they add.

A dangerous situation for minors

FEREDE warns that when minors undergo gender transition there can be negative effects.

“The way in which some of these protocols are drafted, focusing on imminent action in favour of the social transition of any minor who shows signs of transsexuality or gender non-conformity, as if these were easily definable and observable issues, can lead to hasty measures with irremediable effects on the minor's health, such as social transition in the school, but also undergoing medical treatment for the transition at a very early age”.

Those warnings are supported by reports of the American and European Academy of Paediatricians, which “warns of the harm caused by puberty blockers and other hormone treatments when applied to minors, and denounces the lack of study and research into this type of intervention”.

Lack of parental and medical opinion

The evangelical entity laments the lack of accompaniment throughout the process.

“Only the protocol of Galicia foresees a medical report as a previous step to the process of social transition in the educational centre; in all the other regions there is no mention of health professionals, contrary to what some organisations of medical professionals claim”, explains FEREDE.

“The diagnosis is therefore left in the hands of the educational community ‘without requiring or providing any kind of training to carry out such a task”, they add.

For FEREDE, “the lack of consideration for parents who are not even asked for their consent for the social transition of gender of their children, eliminating their power of representation and exercise of parental authority, as well as violating their fundamental rights regarding the education of their children” is serious.

FEREDE also laments the incursion of social services in response to “any refusal or lack of collaboration from the parents”, which reinforces the idea that “social transition is always positive and appropriate to the interests of the minor, ignoring the possibility that in some specific cases it may not be the most appropriate option, or that it may even be risky and dangerous for the physical and mental health of the minor”.

Requests and recommendations

FEREDE concludes its report with five requests and recommendations.

First, to draw up protocols for the prevention and treatment of bullying and discrimination of all kinds, and not only in cases of discrimination due to sexual identity.

“We do not understand why other forms of discrimination, including religious discrimination, are not addressed and protected in the same way”, they underline.

t also calls for “a review of the existing educational protocols of the regions mentioned in this report, in order to protect minors and the exercise of parental authority and the fundamental rights of parents”.

To ensure that the “best interest of the child is not always favouring the social transition of students who are considered trans”, they urge “to analyse each specific case with great rigour, reflection and care, with the intervention of properly trained personnel, including medical assessments that can evaluate the general health of the child and taking into account all their circumstances before initiating a process of social transition”.

“This issue is complex and delicate considering that there have been cases in which young people have repented when the consequences were already irreversible”, says FEREDE.

Fourthly, they ask that “the opinion and criteria of parents, in the exercise of their parental authority and religious freedom, be listened to and taken into account, since they are the competent ones to decide, along with their son or daughter, on such important matters for their lives”.

Finally, FEREDE requests that “when there are indications of abandonment, or that the parents are clearly acting against the best interests of the minor, a procedure can be initiated that is supervised by the judicial authority in the case that the decision of a minor is to prevail over the decision or criteria of his or her parents”.

You can read the full report here (in Spanish).