Sexual and gender diversity

Health-care, education, employment, social services, justice and security forces, sport and leisure, and communications professionals have the right to demand the Catalan public authorities ensure they receive the appropriate professional training and awareness-raising in prevention, detection, attention, assistance and recovery work.

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Heath-care, education, employment, social services, justice and security forces, sport and leisure, and communications professionals have the duty to report a situation of risk or a well-founded suspicion of discrimination or violence on the grounds of sexual orientation, identity or gender expression.

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You have the right to co-education, that is, for sexual and affective diversity, gender identity and the various family models to be respected in the various educational spheres through:

• Mechanisms for detecting situations of discrimination or exclusion of anyone on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Tutorial action plans and regulations that promote harmony in the school community. 

• School, educational and training materials. 


This affects schools and training bodies, adult education, parent training, school sports activities, children’s and youth leisure activities and universities.

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You have the right for Catalan public authorities to ensure the incorporation of activities for non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression in:

• Cultural events and sports activities.
• Projects on recovering historical memories.
• Children’s and youth entertainment and cultural productions.
• Educational resources and documentary records in non-formal education.

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You have the right for the Catalan public authorities to:

• Promote and disseminate any good practices of education associations and companies in leisure and youth entities in relation to the principles of equality, respect and tolerance.
• Ensure the free participation and proper treatment of LGBTI people in sports competitions, involving the sports federations.
• Expand the functions of the Catalan Sports Observatory regarding actions against violence and discrimination in sport and the collection of good practices for raising awareness among sports clubs, groups and federations.
• Enable access to specific bibliographies on LGBTI issues.
• Adopt measures to prevent the possibility of homophobic, biphobic or transphobic acts from being committed in sports events and activities. 


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You have the right for the Catalan Audiovisual Council to:

• Guarantee that the mass media's code of ethics to respect the principles of this statute with regard to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and the various affective expressions.
• Make recommendations on how to refer to homosexuality, bisexuality, trans identity and intersexuality. 

• Ensure that media content and advertising is respectful towards LGBTI people.
• Ensure that diversity of affective and sexual options and different family and identity models or gender expression are treated as normal by the media, thereby promoting the visibility of positive referents.
• Ensure that media programming reflects diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity and family models.
• Monitor information that does not respect sexual diversity, gender identity or gender expression and inform the Ombudsman, the Catalan Parliament and the National Council of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenders and Intersexuals of such information. 


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You have the right for the Catalan health-care system to take account of the specific needs of LGBTI people, to guarantee them the right to receive health care and enjoy the right to health-care services under equal conditions. It must also ensure that members of stable couples, irrespective of their sexual orientation or gender identity, have the same rights as those recognised by the health-care sector's regulations for spouses or closest family members.

You have the right for the Catalan public authorities to:

• Ensure that their health-care policies are LGBTI friendly and do not directly or indirectly treat the condition of these people, especially trans people and intersexuals, as a pathology.
• Draw up public health policies that ensure LGBTI people’s right to health care, adapting, where necessary, the established protocols.
• Guarantee specific strategies for tackling the specific health-care problems of LGBTI people, respecting the right to privacy of those affected.
• Create participatory mechanisms for LGBTI people, entities and associations in policies relating to sexual health.
• Guarantee the study, research and development of specific health-care policies for LGBTI people.
• Ensure administrative documents and medical forms are adapted to the diversity of family models and gender identities.

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You have the right for the Catalan public authorities to:

• Promote legitimate and respectful, but never aversive, health-care practices or psychological therapies for sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
• Foster the use for preventive methods for ensuring safe sexual practices and protection against STDs.
• Launch initiatives for promoting health, raising awareness of and preventing HIV/AIDs and other STDs.

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You have the right for the Catalan public authorities to incorporate comprehensive care into the health-care system for transgenders and intersexuals and define the criteria for accessing hormonal treatment and surgery.

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You have the right for the Catalan public authorities to ensure lesbian women equal access to assisted-reproduction techniques.

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You have the right for the Catalan public authorities to take special care in supporting LGBTI teenagers and young people who are at risk of social exclusion, to prevent situations that put their lives or health at risk. The Catalan government also has to implement support measures and initiatives for LGBTI teenagers and young people who have left home because of physical or psychological abuse.

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You have the right for measures to be adopted to protect LGBTI people against multiple discrimination and social exclusion.

You have the right for social services or old people’s homes to ensure there is no discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.

You have the right for homes or other facilities, where spaces are separated according to sex, to enable trans people to use the space of the gender they identify with.

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You have the right for the government to:

• Establish the relevant measures for ensuring suitable treatment and detention of LGBTI people in police stations.
• Establish rules for identifying and body-searching for transgender people according to their own perceived identity.
• Allow and enable transgender people who are arrested or imprisoned to continue their medical or hormonal treatment.
• Ensure that transgender prisoners are treated appropriately according to the gender they identify with.
• Ensure that the initial and ongoing training of police officers (local and regional forces) and prison warders, etc., deals with diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, as well as the regulations that protect LGBTI people.

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You have the right for the government to:

• Apply a protocol for comprehensively and appropriately treating victims of assault on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
• Encourage victims to go to the police and report any violence they have suffered on the grounds of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

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You have the right for the Catalan government to promote the fight for the rights of LGBTI people in policies for cooperating in and fostering peace by:

• Introducing diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression as a further area of work in the field of immigration.
• Providing support to people who have suffered persecution or reprisals in their countries of origin.
• Maintaining contact with representatives of all the religious beliefs living in Catalonia.

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You have the right for the Catalan ministry responsible for employment to take account, in its policies, of the right of people not to be discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Companies have to adopt measures for avoiding any type of employment discrimination.  The Catalan government has to encourage companies to voluntarily adopt plans for LGBTI equality and non-discrimination, with the necessary technical support. 


You have the right for the Catalan Ministry of Labour to:

• Guarantee non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression and ensure that LGBTI people can fully exercise their rights, in employment contracts and work and employment conditions, for Catalan government staff.
• Launch initiatives for guaranteeing equal opportunities and non-discrimination in companies by incorporating criteria for equal opportunities in calls for grant and subsidy applications or encouraging unions and companies to hold awareness-raising campaigns.
• Promote the gradual introduction of equality indicators that take account of the reality of LGBTI people in the public and private sectors and of a badge for companies that stand out for their equality and non-discrimination policies.
• Promote training for staff responsible for workplace inspections and the prevention of occupational risks on the types of discrimination that LGBTI people may face and on diversity of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
• Urge staff responsible for workplace inspections to report cases of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
• Promote participation spaces and specific information campaigns in collaboration with LGBTI associations.

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You have the right for the Catalan Ministry of Labour to:

• Promote the inclusion of trans people in the workplace.
• Foster new ways of managing work time and maintaining a work-life balance.

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As a family, you have the same legal protection established by law that covers family relations resulting from marriage, cohabitation as a stable couple and single-parent families.

You have the right, in the assessment of suitability in adoption processes, for there not to be any discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Where a member of a stable couple dies, the other member has the same rights as a married person in taking part in the identification and burial of the body of the deceased and in receiving their personal items, among other necessary procedures.

You have the right for the comprehensive care service, in coordination with local authorities to attend to victims of gender violence and LGBTI people who suffer discrimination in the family sphere. Catalan public authorities must ensure that administrative documents are adapted to the affective relations of LGBTI people and diversity of families. 


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You have the right for the competent bodies of the Catalan government in family and equality matters to hold information campaigns aimed at families for the purposes of:

• Raising awareness of the various affective and gender realities.
• Combating discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
• Promoting equal treatment of the most vulnerable LGBTI people, such as teenagers, young people and the elderly.

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You have the right to expect the Catalan public authorities, especially those responsible for education and universities, will establish conditions, through regulations, so that intersexuals are treated and referred to by the gender they identify with, even when they are minors. They must also guarantee the secrecy of gender-identity data.

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You have the right for the rights of transgenders and intersexuals to consultation and specific information to be guaranteed in areas such as access to work, hormonal treatments and surgery or sexual and reproductive health.

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As a transgender or intersexual person you are entitled to the benefits of this statute without the need of any diagnosed identity disorder or medical treatment.

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This is the right that everyone has for bringing a legal claim to court and commencing a legal action to reach a reasoned decision.

Depending on each case, the courts will have to:

• Adopt necessary measures to stop discrimination.
• Adopt protective measures.
• Prevent future violations.
• Compensate victims for the harm suffered.
• Restore the injured party to their previous administrative position, so that they can exercise their right once again.

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Under no circumstances may the right of admission involve discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

The criteria for and limits to conditions for accessing and staying must be visible from entrance signs.

Owners of establishments and spaces open to the public and organisers of entertainment and recreational activities are legally obliged to prevent access to or expel individuals who:

Physically or verbally abuse people on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
Publicly display symbols, clothing or items inciting violence, discrimination or homophobia, biphobia or transphobia.

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Public authorities must guarantee the right of LGBTI people to receive specialist legal information on and assistance regarding discrimination and the various types of violence against them.

They must also guarantee immediate comprehensive protection for LGBTI victims of violence or discrimination.

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Where a person reports discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression and provides prima facie evidence, the burden will fall on the accused to demonstrate they have not violated the principle of equality.

This principle does not apply to criminal or disciplinary-administrative proceedings.

Acting on its own initiative or at the party’s behest, the administrative or disciplinary body may require reports from the bodies with jurisdiction over the matter of equality.

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