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Date Published: 17/05/2022
ARCHIVED - Far-right parliamentary group in Murcia wants to ban the LGBTI flag as unconstitutional and illegal
Vox in Murcia want to bring “legal consequences” down on the regional government for flying the rainbow flag on International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia today
On the occasion of International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, today May 17, the rainbow LGBTI+ flag was flying in the Regional Assembly of Murcia, but it has got the backs up of some politicians, who accuse it of being unconstitutional and seeks to create a system whereby concerned citizens can complain against the symbol.
The spokesman for the far-right Vox Parliamentary Group, Juan José Liarte, has stated that the flag is “a symbol that is not covered by the law on flags, which does not represent the whole of society and which has political content that contravenes the provisions of the Constitution.”
For this reason, next week the group plans to bring a motion to the plenary session aimed at sanctioning all public institutions that break, in their opinion, the principle of ideological neutrality: “These breaches must have legal consequences.”
The initiative also seeks to create a “complaints channel” so that citizens can report such actions.
The motion by the Vox parliamentary group, which is made up of expelled members of the Vox political party, is backed by the ultra-conservative Polish organisation Ordo Iuris, which claims to pursue the “strengthening of the law and the rule of law on the values of dignity and human rights”. In the coming weeks, Ordo Iuris Spain will be receive its inauguration, starting its activity in Spain with this anti-LGBTI+ initiative.
As explained by the Vox Group, the Spanish Constitution supports the ideological neutrality of public administrations: “In Spain there is a law on flags that establishes which symbols and flags should be placed on official buildings, but, unfortunately, for some time we have been able to observe that there are many public administrations that ignore both the constitutional precepts and the reiterated constitutional jurisprudence.”
However, the Regional Assembly has hit back, pointing out that displaying the rainbow flag is “a measure of support for the LGTBI movement, which is included in the Law on Social Equality for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transsexuals and Intersexuals and Public Policies against Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, approved by the Regional Assembly in 2016.”
The Law, supported by all four main parliamentary groups represented in the 9th Legislature (PP, PSOE, Podemos and Ciudadanos), insists on the “obligation of the public authorities to adopt the necessary measures to ensure that the rights of these groups are respected in a real and effective manner.”
Among other issues, parliamentary sources add, the law “is committed to their visibility through institutional support for the celebration of June 28, LGTBI Pride Day, and May 17, as this is the day on which homosexuality was removed from the list of mental illnesses by the General Assembly of the World Health Organisation (WHO).”
Image: Asamblea Regional de Murcia
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