EU lawmakers urge Madrid region chief to slash anti-LGBTIQ+ bill

The President of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, was urged to backtrack on her plans to cut down trans rights and LGBTI protection in a letter that was sent to her by the EU Parliament LGBTI Intergroup, which represents 160 MEPs, on Wednesday.

On 10 November, the Popular Party (PP/EPP) regional parliamentary group, led by Ayuso, tabled a bill to amend one anti-LGBT discrimination law and one gender identity law passed by themselves in 2016 – both of which widened the rights of the LGBTI community, especially trans people.

The proposed amendments set to be adopted with PP’s absolute majority on Friday cut down on the rights and protections of the LGBTI community, including legalising conversion therapy for trans people – pseudoscientific methods that try to suppress one’s self-determined sexuality or gender identity.

Additionally, it eliminates all educational content from schools aimed at showing the LGBTI reality, and slashes the plan against LGBTI harassment in schools and anti-discrimination teacher training.

As the text reads, the bill aims at “correcting some aspects, [included in the first version of the laws] whether in good faith or moved by the desire to impose certain doctrines known as ‘gender’, which ended up violating rights such as freedom of expression and the press, and the academic and educational freedom of articles 20 and 27 of the Spanish Constitution, or the presumption of innocence of article 24 of the Constitution”.

One of these key “aspects,” according to the conservatives, is the reversed burden of proof for LGBTI discrimination acts, whereby it is the accused who needs to show evidence of innocence and not the claimant who needs to prove wrongdoing.

At the same time, they also seek to derogate the right to ‘gender self-determination’ “which is alien to science and law and whose introduction is detrimental to the legal security of each of those affected, as well as to society as a whole.”

Gender self-determination means a person can easily change their gender in official documents without the need for third parties, such as psychologists or psychotherapists.

Ahead of the reform’s parliamentary approval on Friday, the co-presidents of the LGBTI Intergroup in the European Parliament sent a letter to Ayuso, urging her to slash the amendments to safeguard “human rights” while staging the reform contravenes EU values.

“We would kindly urge your regional Parliamentarians to reject the proposed amendments as tabled by the Popular Parliamentary Group [PP group] as they could seriously violate the rights of LGBTI persons and represent a clear regression in the protection and promotion of human rights,” the letter, signed by Dutch MEP Kim van Sparrentak (Greens/EFA) and Luxembourgish Marc Angel (S&D), reads.

“Not only is contrary to international human rights standards, but it also goes against the spirit and values of the European Union, since the proposed amendments move away from the observance of the right to equality and non-discrimination enshrined in its main legislation, and specifically against the values established in article 2 of the Treaty of the Union,” the letter warns.

(Max Griera | Euractiv.com)