NEWS

A TRANSPHOBIC BUS DROVE AROUND MADRID

Earlier this month (March 2017), a bus of the group Hazte Oír was immobilized for sending an anti-transgender message. Hazte Oír (which in English means “Make Yourself Heard”) is a right-wing Catholic group that was created in 2001 by Ignacio Arsuaga, a Spanish lawyer, but it wasn’t approved by the government until 2013 (as a non-for-profit organization). They are against the abortion rights and have launched messages against the LGBT community in general. They claim they have 7000 members and receive €2.6 million from supporters. 

Boys have penises, girls have vulvas. Don’t let them fool you.
If you’re born a man, you’re a man. If you’re born a woman,
 you will continue to be so

The transphobic group drove all over Madrid with a bus including this message: “Boys have penises, girls have vulvas. Don’t let them fool you. If you’re born a man, you’re a man. If you’re born a woman, you will continue to be so”. This message is a response to another campaign launched by Chrysallis, a transgender support group, which said: “There are girls with penises and boys with vulvas”. At first, Hazte Oír made an online petition to remove the campaign, but it couldn’t obtain enough support.

Hazte Oír wanted to drove around the Spanish capital for a week, and then go to another important cities in Spain, to spread their message. But, since there has been a lot of protests from political parties, organizations and people in general (using social media), the mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, ordered to immobilize the bus.

The campaign in defense of transgender kids
 launched by Chrysallis.

Rita Maestre, Madrid Hall spokeswoman, said that due to Madrid is an inclusive and welcoming city, they cannot let a discriminatory bus to drive around it. There have been more protests, even from the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Ricardo Blázquez, who asked for respect for children. The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, has also criticized the campaign and forbid the bus to go in Barcelona, and if it does it, Hazte Oír will have to pay €3000 as a fine.

In defense, Hazte Oír said that the message wasn’t against anybody, neither wanted to offend or discriminate, it just wanted to “recognize a biological fact that we all have studied at school”.


PERSONAL OPINION:

From my point of view, I think it’s correct what the mayor of Madrid has done: not letting the bus drive around the city. Hazte Oír is sending a message of hate and intolerance. Imagine you are a transgender kid and see this: you would feel insecure and strange with yourself. It makes me angry the fact that Hazte Oír tries to defend themselves saying that they just want to “recognize a biological fact that we all have studied at school”, but it’s not the same the biological sex and your gender: you can have a man’s body but feel like a woman, or vice versa. I think we all have to respect each other; we don’t have to generate hate or intolerance.

NEW WORDS:

Diocese: diòcesi (districte de l'església catòlica presidida per un bisbe, arquebisbe...).
Fine (verb): multar
Revenue: ingressos


Link: http://elpais.com/elpais/2017/03/01/inenglish/1488358583_324566.html