Prosecutors in Madrid on Wednesday launched an “urgent” investigation into a conservative association that chartered a bus displaying a large, anti-transgender message to tour Spain, drawing widespread condemnation.
If you’re born a man, you’re a man, if you’re a woman, you will continue to be so
“Boys have penises, girls have vaginas. Don’t let them fool you. If you’re born a man, you’re a man, if you’re a woman, you will continue to be so,” read the slogan on the side of the big, orange bus, which started circulating in Madrid on Monday.
Chartered by the HazteOir (“Make yourself heard”) association, the red bus was part of the group’s latest campaign against the promotion of gender identity, or the right for a person to feel like and be a man or a woman regardless of their birth sex.
It was bound for other Spanish cities but Madrid authorities made an official complaint over possible “LGBT-phobia,” seizing the vehicle.
Prosecutors in Madrid then launched a probe into the organisation to determine whether the campaign could constitute a “hate crime”, asking a judge to have the vehicle immobilised.
In a statement, they said failing to do so could risk “disturbing the peace and creating a feeling of insecurity or fear among people due to their identity or sexual orientation, and specifically among minors who could be affected by the message”.
The bus campaign drew widespread criticism.
