Bus With Anti-Transgender Message Banned From Spanish Capital

A Madrid judge banned a bright orange bus emblazoned with an anti-transgender message from driving through the Spanish capital on Thursday on the grounds that it was discriminatory and could provoke hate crimes.

“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 message across the side of the bus, which has been parked outside Madrid since Tuesday.

The bus was chartered by HazteOir (”Make yourself heard” in Spanish), a far-right Catholic group, who began the campaign on Monday to bring attention to what it says is a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender agenda in Spain.

HazteOir said the court ruling violates its right to free speech, but it would now review the exact wording of the message on the bus.

The group, however, intends to continue the bus campaign in other cities in Spain in an effort, it says, to educate people.

(Reporting by Amanda Calvo; Editing by Paul Day and Toby Davis)