FiLiA welcomes the arrival in the Spanish Congress of a law project which purported aim is to tackle the sexual violence and abuse that, overwhelmingly, affects women and girls in society. We congratulate our Spanish feminists’ counterparts for their decades long struggle to bring this issue both to the Spanish mainstream and now, to its legislature.

Considered an ‘Only Yes Means Yes’ rape law, it would consider any form of penetrative sex without explicit consent punishable by four to ten years of jail. The Socialists Party in government claims that the legislation will protect women with Equality minister, Irene Montero, stating: “Women’s rights and sexual freedoms will never again be lost in a dark alley.”

However, we note that several feminist objections have been raised to the bill. Women right’s collectives such as the ‘Alliance Against the Erasure of Women’ have issued a public statement denouncing that ‘gender identity’ proponents seek to make use of the bill in order to introduce contested and troublesome concepts into the Spanish judicial system.

The objecting feminists have said: “To use a Sexual Violence Law to try to sneak through the backdoor terminology which erases the uncontestable realities of sex differences, is a dangerous manoeuvre which seeks to consolidate into Spanish legislation the concept of ‘sex self-identification’.” Aside from erasing ‘sex’ as a political category, they have reminded the Spanish government that “being born female or male determines a structural position in the world, and this is not an insignificant fact when it comes to sexual aggression.”

Spanish feminists call for democratic and transparent public discussion on the implications of the law proposal, and demand that the Equality ministry acknowledges the legal implications (both practical and political), and the competing rights inherent within the bill.

Around the world, we note the worrisome tendency of proponents of ‘gender identity’ legislation to attempt to conceal said policies within more popular law projects. We are particularly concerned that these efforts usually obfuscate their intentions within legislation aimed to address women and girls rights.

It is particularly pernicious to attempt to hide concepts which would act to the detriment of women’s rights, within women’s rights legislation, but this is the disconcerting climate in which feminists around the world must currently operate. We send our support and solidarity to Spanish feminists as they work towards addressing the problems presented within the bill, and as we all move forward together.

You can read more about Spanish feminists objections to the law project here.
You can sign their statement of support here.

Raquel Rosario Sanchez, Spokeswoman for FiLiA
4th March 2020