The socialist MEPs Javier Moreno, Laura Ballarín and Marc Angel have asked the European Commission this Tuesday to take measures to stop the two legislative proposals of the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso to reform the trans and anti-LGTBIphobia laws of Madrid. The socialists have asked Brussels if they are informed of the reforms of the Popular Party (PP) in the Community of Madrid, if it considers that these “violate the rights of LGTBI people” and what measures the Commission could take. This is another of the cards that the opposition has played in recent weeks given the possibility of the modifications being approved in the Madrid Assembly, where the PP has an absolute majority.
The PSOE, Más Madrid and the platform Not a step back Since mid-November, they have led a fierce resistance to the reduction of rights entailed by the reform of Law 2/2016 and Law 3/2016, approved during the popular government of Cristina Cifuentes. Ayuso’s proposal – which was presented on November 23 in the Assembly – requires medical examinations before minors begin a sex change process; eliminates reversal of the burden of proof or punishment for wrongful discrimination; and erases the right to recognition of freely expressed gender identity, to the free development of personality and to be treated in accordance with gender identity. The PP wants to carry out the reform of both laws before the end of the year.
Opposition parties and LGTBI groups are in a race against time. The PSOE of Madrid traveled to Brussels at the end of November to meet with Iratxe García, president of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (PES) and MEP of the European Parliament, and with representatives of the International Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans and Intersex (ILGA, for its acronym in English) which brings together more than 1,900 LGTBI associations around the world.
According to the General Secretary of the PSOE of Madrid, Juan Lobato, “it is about explaining in Brussels that Madrid is going to be the first region in Europe in which, instead of advancing in social and LGTBI rights, it is going to go backwards” . “We hope that the political influence that Brussels may have will cause the Community of Madrid to reflect,” says Lobato. Santiago Rivero, socialist deputy and member of the Family and Social Affairs Commission of the Assembly, explains that putting the issue on the table in Europe is key. “At the European level there is a rule that if a member country has a series of recognized civil rights – such as LGTBI – if there is a setback, the EU usually comes in,” he says.
The PSOE in Madrid will also present amendments to the entirety with alternative text. “We maintain the texts of the 2016 laws and add some points. In the LGTBI law we present the creation of a Museum of Memory, a shelter for minors and an educational figure that is like a kind of coordinator that helps educational centers manage cases of harassment and work on diversity plans,” Rivero details. To the trans law, the PSOE proposes adding an article ordering the creation of a shelter for trans women and another for the creation of vocational training or university degree scholarships.
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Más Madrid, for its part, registered last Friday amendments to the entire proposals of the Madrid PP. The party proposes additions such as incorporating a third box for non-binary people in the forms and administrative communication, expanding gender identity training programs, a health care plan for trans people in rural areas and that waiting lists for Gender reassignment surgeries last a maximum of one year. Carla Antonelli, deputy and senator from Más Madrid, had assured, in an interview with EL PAÍS, that they would knock on all the necessary doors. “We are going to fight first in the Assembly. Then we will go to all the national and international courts and spaces that there are, this is not going to stay like this,” she stated.
The amendments to the entirety will be debated in the plenary session of the Assembly on December 14.
Today, since @MasMadrid__with my classmate @Jimegongowe have registered the AMENDMENTS to ALL of the indecent and saficious laws of a miserable @IdiazAyuso and the PP, for the repeal of the TRANS and LGTBI laws of Madrid of 2016. In the end the much vaunted “Freedom consisted… pic.twitter.com/GSlXJ1wCCT
— Carla Antonelli / 🏳️⚧️☂️ (@CarlaAntonelli) December 1, 2023
In addition, LGTBI Collectives such as Chrysallis, the Pedro Zerolo Foundation and Cogam, which were not consulted for the reform projects, intervened this Monday in the Family and Social Affairs Commission to warn of the consequences that the modifications to the 2016 laws could have.
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