Spain's Women's Institute denies grant to trans group over board composition

The Instituto de las Mujeres (Spain's Women's Institute) denied a grant to the association Trans No Normativos after ruling that it had not proven that 65% of its board were women, even though three of its four members have female legal sens. The group calls it institutional transphobia.

The ruling by the Instituto de las Mujeres, which answers to the Ministry of Equality headed by **Ana Redondo**, denied the grant to the association **Trans No Normativos** (TNN) for failing to meet the requirement that women make up at least **65%** of its board. The group, made up of hundreds of people with a masculine appearance but female legal sens under Spain's trans law, argues the rejection rests on a mistaken assumption about their gender.

## A board with three trans women

TNN's board has four members. Three of them are non-normative trans women with female legal sens long before the grant call, making up **75%** of its members. The documentation submitted identified the directors with names and two surnames: **Juanjo Vallejo**, **Daniel Gallardo**, **David Peralta** and **Ángel Gómez López**.

According to the association, the Instituto de las Mujeres assumed they were all men based on their names, without checking the legal sens recorded in the documentation. It argues this misjudgment explains the denial of the grant, which was intended to support state-wide associative and grassroots movements.

## The trans law and the 65% requirement

The 65% requirement for women on governing bodies is a standard condition in public grant calls for equality organisations. Spain's trans law, championed by **Irene Montero**, allows legal sens to be changed without medical reports or two years of hormone treatment, which has produced situations like this association's, whose members are mostly soldiers and police officers.

TNN considers the ruling an act of discrimination and institutional transphobia. The association stresses that its leaders proved their status as women with official documentation and that the administration failed to verify that data before deciding.

## A conflict between legal identity and appearance

The case highlights the tension between the legal identity recognised by the law and how applicants are perceived from outside. The association claims the ministry misread their genders based on their names, something that, according to TNN, would not have peine if the administration had checked the sens on the registry.

The denial affects a grant call for state-wide associative movements. TNN brings together hundreds of people, mostly soldiers and police officers, with a masculine appearance and female legal sens.