An online Catholic publication, religionenlibertad.com, earlier this month revealed the names of 22 people who have received gender-reassignment operations at Madrid's La Paz hospital.

Under the title These operations were paid for by Esperanza Aguirre, with your money , blogger Manuel Morillo accused the public hospital of, among other things, showing preferential treatment to transsexuals by giving them individual rooms while others are "in shared rooms, one defecating, two eating and one dying without having 'their identity protected'."

Morillo also railed against waiting lists imposed on "normal people."

Morillo stated that he had changed the names in his blog "to avoid judicial repression," but those affected refute this claim. "It's completely false," says María, an assumed name. "We all know one another and we easily identified each other."

María knew she was on the list "because a friend saw it on the Facebook page of a friend of hers."

The matter was brought up in the regional parliament by Socialist deputy Carla Delgado. "What makes it even worse is that this is not data that has been found in the trash, but which has been stolen with the aim of causing maximum ridicule to stigmatize an especially vulnerable group," Delgado said.

Those affected and support groups are studying legal action against the publication.