Feminists have been warning for a long time. And it's happening.
For months now, Spanish feminism has been a great deal of information work on the so-called 'Ley Trans'. which introduces theself-determination of 'gender' -instead of sex- without a path of transition and psychological accompaniment, proposal by Irene Montero, Minister of Education, Employment and Social Affairs. De Igualdad of Podemos.
Madrid made it clear that the proposal is not supported by central government and distanced himself from it, as declared by Vice-Premier Carmen CalvoPSOE.
Just a fortnight ago, on 15 May, the Ley Trans did not obtain the majority of votes at central level, thanks to the almost unanimous abstention of the PSOE, which has blocked the start of the parliamentary debate.
But Spain consists of seventeen autonomous regions, and gender self-determination has already been approved by eleven communitieswhich allow the change of sex at the registry office, without any expertise or treatment, over the age of 16. The autonomous communities that authorise this are: Andalusia, the first in 2014, Aragon, Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Extremadura, Madrid, Murcia, Navarre, Basque Country, Valencian Community and Catalonia.
The eleventh community, 26 May, was the Canary Islands. where Parliament unanimously approved the law on the social equality e non-discrimination on grounds of 'gender identity', gender expression and sexual characteristicswhich establishes free self-determination of gender identity and gender expression. To prove gender identity it will be sufficient for a person to expressly state that he/she identifies him/herself as a woman, a man or a non-binary person, without expert opinions or judgments. It also establishes a system of administrative sanctions for the discrimination it can achieve 45,000 euro in case of assault or harassmente.
Not even a week later Jonathan de Jesús Robaina Santana asked through his lawyer to be called by the name Lorena. Jonathan de Jesús Robaina Santana is confessed to the murder of his cousin Vanessa Santana who was 21 years old in 2018 when she was brutally murdered with 30 hammer blows. Her mother found her in a pool of blood, with a belt tight around her neck, rolled up in a blanket and with ejaculation marks on her lifeless body.
In the trial starting this Monday, 31 May 2021, Jonathan has to cope with a sentence of 27 years' imprisonment for murder.
During the trial, Jonathan's lawyer, Roberto Orive, addressed the President of the Court, Magistrate José Luis Goizueta, requesting that during all sessions of the trial address the defendant and mention him or her using Lorena's name, since it was also recognised as such by the penal institutions.
The defendant denied having subjected his cousin's lifeless body to any kind of sexual acts -aggravating circumstance that would result in an additional 15-year sentence, arguing: "I am a woman and I don't want to be with a girl, I want to be with a man".
His stance (change of 'gender') was questioned by the prosecution, the Canary Island Institute of Equality and in particular by the victim's family, who used the masculine 'accused' to refer to Jonathan.
The lawyer for the parents and the brother of the deceased rejected the defence's argument that Jonathan's gender change is now official because he has already been given different treatment in prison since the moment he was declared a womanallowing him to wearing women's clothes and using a separate shower by prisoners. Recognition of this, they claim, "is not the responsibility of the penal institutions, but of the Civil Registry".
Vanessa's family opposed the defence's refusal to recognise the crime as a murder aggravated by cruelty, although it has also been qualified as such by the Public Prosecutor, who is asking for 25 years in prison. Without this aggravating circumstance, the penalty would be lower.
Vanessa's cousin, 18-year-old Nayara Alberto Padilla, got in touch with Paula Fraga, a lawyer and activist who is part of the ContraBorrado team, a feminist unity cartel, to thank her for her commitment against this abuse and against the re-victimisation of Vanessa.
Nayara refuses to consider Jonathan as a woman and in a'.interview declares that now the murderer identifies himself as a woman to reduce his sentence.
"My cousin's murderer is called Jonathan, not Lorena, and he is a man who has always been stalker of women'.
Now, after three years of waiting, the trial for Vanessa's feminicide not only reopens the wounds for the family but also salts them.
Thanks to this self-identification not only would Jonathan serve his sentence in a women's prison, but his murder would become part of the statistics of crimes committed by women. "He trampled on Vanessa's memory again by saying her name is Lorena. He's the one who killed my cousin. And not Lorena, as she wants to be called now"says Nayara.
For this Nayara Alberto sends a message to Irene Montero and to all the people who defend trans law. "I would like to say to you and to all the politicians in this country who have contributed to this law that it is obvious that they have never gone through anything like this, because otherwise it wouldn't take them any time at all to change all these laws. It's a pain that I don't wish on anyone, I think that as politicians they should put themselves in the shoes of the citizens. Whether they want it or not, they are there thanks to us, not thanks to the Holy Spirit.
Nayara states: 'They seem to be making fun of us and that they go to trial thinking: -let's say this and see what happens! We are not a social experiment. We are people with irreparable pain inside, let's see if this is clear to the alleged killer's family. The only ones who have suffered here are us and not them. We can't see Vanessa anymore, they can see Jonathan whenever they want".
Nayara describes Jonathan as a stalker who has already been denounced by some women and a harasser on the Internet. "As a child at school he had several problems with girls. The way he looked at women was also noticeable. Anyone who knows him knows that there is nothing womanly about him... and it angers me that he now wants to use Ley Trans to take advantage of her as a murderer. We, Vanessa's family and the people in the village do not know any Lorraine, we know him, Jonathan 'the Mafioso' what he called himself as a child going around the streets with his knives. His mother was warned several times about her son's behaviour, but never listened.
His obsession with Vanessa was well known; a year before he killed her, he had tried to throw her off a cliff with a knife to her neck. But she was strong and managed to escape when she got home. her parents told her to report him, but to her Jonathan was her cousin and she never thought he could take her life. I have several such anecdotes. When I stayed over, her room was separated from his by a wall and he hit the wall for hours. I said to her, "Vane, I don't like this guy at all". Her reply, as always, "Nayi, don't be silly, it's Joni, what is she going to do? When she heard us leaving the house, she would run out and ask us where we were going. We never imagined she would do something like this though. I don't think anyone expects it until it happens. I wish we'd realised it sooner! I would much rather visit her in a penal institution than bring her flowers every week to the cemetery. I know it's a difficult thing to say but it's the truth. That's how I feel.
To the question "Do you think it could be a danger lock him up in a women's prison?" Nayara replied: "Yes, of course. will be dangerous for those prisoners. They are prisoners, but they are still women and do not deserve to go through what Vanessa went through.. There have already been cases in other countries where these women prisoners have been abused by men who self-identified as women, and have in fact been sentenced again. What makes this case different? Nothing, because it will".
Vanessa's mother also gave information about the nature of the murderer. Vanessa was often missing clothes because the accused, who had the keys to the house, had stolen them. 'We took care of him since he was a baby' because his mother went to work. They grew up together, he was always in my house, I took care of him a lot and he was a nephew to all of us. Once he attacked Vanessa, but she did not want to denounce him because he was her cousin and she loved him.
A neighbour who testified said that from the beginning 'he was suspected because he was aggressive. He lived more at night than in the daytime' and 'from the first moment he was suspected because he did not show any concern for his cousin's death'.
"Jonathan was not a normal boy: he was quite a loner," they told The Province the inhabitants of the village. "He was also obsessed with video games and women, especially his cousin'.
Jonathan allegedly suffers from a mental disability at 75% and has a known history of harassment.
Psychologist specialised in gender-based violence Timanfaya Hernandez told EL ESPAÑOL that the age of the alleged murderer is relevant: 'If he has an impairment, a pathology, and does not have the tools to socialise properly, he will not know how to relate. He will use any means. Even more so in the case of his cousin, a victim in a situation of absolute indefensibility and vulnerability because she had already suffered harassment before and He let it happen because he was family..
This trial of a horrible case of sexist violence would not have made the news if it were not for the fact that, just two days after the approval of the Trans Law in the Canary Islands, the murderer stated in court that during his stay in prison he had initiated the procedure for a change of sex. and by virtue of this assured that he did not subject the victim's body to sexual acts because she is 'a woman' who wants to 'be with men'.
The news triggered a reaction on social networks. With the hashtag #EstoNoIbaAPasar, feminist groups denounce that Under the new law, this man can be imprisoned in a women's prison where he could return to his old habits and abuse female prisoners.
The recently approved law on transactions in the Canary Islands does not provide for retroactivity.. As the crime was prior to the self-identification of the aggressor as a woman, the aggravating circumstance of male violence can be applied. However, the law allows him to be transferred to a women's prison after final conviction.
It is known that in both men's and women's prisons there are cases of sexual abuse and rape committed by prison staff on prisoners, or by one prisoner on another. Any person, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, can be a victim of these crimes, although in men's prisons younger prisoners and homosexuals are more likely to suffer abuse and humiliation.
In other countries, such as at Canada and in California where laws allowing gender self-determination are in place, as we have repeatedly reported, there is considerable pressure from male prisoners who identify themselves as women and request transfer - or have already been transferred - to women's prisons. In 2019 there were already 139 males self-identifying as women in prisons in England and Walestwice as many as in 2016, and the number was bound to increase. Half of them had been convicted of sexual assault.
They are many complaints from female prisoners about sexual assaults. The best known case, that of Karen White (formerly Stephen Thomas), who assaulted two female prisoners. The British Ministry of Justice decided that it would review the law and build special wings in prisons for transgender people. Such solutions were also considered in India and Thailand.
Returning to the case of Jonathan Robaira, both the court and the lawyers and the victim's own family are forced to address him as Lorraine and with female pronouns according to the new law. The victim's relatives have already denounced this as a further aggressionThis is added to the pain they have been suffering since they lost their loved one.
If no preventive measures are taken, we will see more cases like that of Jonathan aka Lorena. Worse still, there will be men who, once self-identified as women, will commit gender-based violence, escaping the application of this aggravating circumstance in their sentences. Deleting sex from the statistics and putting 'gender identity' in its place has meant that in the UK, for example, there has been an 84% increase in the number of women listed as perpetrators of rape and other sexual abuse.
These are some of the problems resulting from gender self-identification laws denounced by feminism worldwide. Transgenderism speaks of 'transphobia', even if respect for trans people has nothing to do with pointing out flaws in the laws that are supposed to protect women's rights.
In a recent interview to Radio Insular on the case of Jonathan Robaira aka Lorena, lhe vice-president of Euforia/Trans Families Collective, Zaida García, has never questioned that this murderer and sexual predator be transferred to a women's prison and has defined the groups opposing this measure at least for sex offenders as 'transphobic feminism'. Zaida Garcia also said that cannot say whether Jonathan was a man or not when he committed the crime.and, that you cannot ask trans people to prove that they are trans because if you do not take the same measure with people who are not trans, then you are discriminating.
Sara Punzo
see history here
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