The Ministry of Equality has defended the new director of the Women's Institute, Isabel García, after criticism from Sumar and trans groups. Thus, sources from this department have indicated to Europa Press that García is supported by her resume, both in private companies and in the public sphere, as a public servant, in the defense of the rights of LGTBI people. Former ministers Irene Montero and Ione Belarra have expressed their opposition and have requested the dismissal.
The criticism received by the new director is due to her critical position with the trans law and the background of the norm. That is to say, and as reflected in some of her tweets, by understanding that the norm promoted by Irene Montero from the Ministry makes biological "sex" disappear as a defining element of women, and therefore, "the political subject woman ". The new director of the Women's Institute also considers that in the background the queer theory that inspires the norm is an attack against women and the fight for equality. In some of Rodríguez's tweets collected from Sumar and Podemos she is criticized for saying that trans women do not exist, while she defends transsexual people.
Feminism was divided in the debate on the trans law around the discussion about the free self-determination of registered sex and, likewise, a debate was opened about the impact of this free self-determination on minors. The appointment of the new minister, Ana Redondo, attempted to set a new direction for Equality, with a more technical profile and an agenda focused on the fight against gender violence and equality between men and women. The first law that the Government has presented this legislature has been, and not by chance, that of parity.
But it is evident that the profiles of the Ministry's team could not all have been of a technical nature, since the positions of the feminist movement around this debate have been intense, long and conflicting. Isabel García, in an article published on her website during the processing of the trans law, pointed out that the PSOE defends the rights of trans people and recalled that "we are in favor of depathologization" but demanded "legal certainty" to carry out changes in civil registries and a calmer debate.
From Sumar, the appointment has been considered "unacceptable" because it understands that it "belittles and insults women and LGTBI people." Isabel Duval, responsible for feminism, considers that it sends a "regrettable" message and that the Women's Institute cannot be directed by someone who criticizes the queer "dictatorship" and with "openly transphobic" speeches.
But there are also many feminist associations that have come out to defend the new director, understanding that with her it will be possible to recover in the Ministry the essential core of the fight for equality between men and women.
Isabel García was a LGTBI federal delegate and, according to what she writes in her blog, she is a lesbian and claims the struggle of lesbian women who are "doubly discriminated against" for "being women in a patriarchal world and being lesbians in a heteronormative and heteropatriarchal world."
