The Community of Madrid opens the first Specialized Comprehensive Care Center for Male Victims of Sexual Violence, which will host professionals from psychology, social work and law “for their integral recovery”, for which it will allocate 700,000 euros per year. However, it should be remembered that Nearly 90% of victims of sexual crimes against sexual freedom These are women and girls, while the remaining 10% are men and boys.according to data from the Ministry of the Interior for the year 2023.
Likewise, the ministry stressed that 95% of those responsible for these crimes against sexual freedom are men. However, the Madrid Executive assured that it has detected that “many men have suffered this type of violence”, but he did not provide any data on these crimes or any statistics.
This was announced by the President of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in her speech at the first session of the debate on the state of the region, and she said that she would open its doors next year (in January)with an annual investment of 700,000 euros.
According to the regional government, this initiative comes after detecting “that many men have suffered this type of violencesome during childhood, which is why they have consequences, and others in the environment known as chemsex (drug use during sexual activity)”. At no time, as has been pointed out, did they give figures on these alleged attacks.
But this reduces help for abused women
In his speech, Díaz Ayuso highlighted that the Community of Madrid has developed a wide regional network in this area and in 2009 it opened the Comprehensive Care Center for Women Victims of Sexual Violence, with which the region has been a pioneer in this type of assistance.
But the truth is that, while Ayuso makes this announcement, the Community of Madrid is reducing the number of apartments destined for welcome victims of gender-based violence. Associations like La Casa Grande must request credits to be able to continue providing the service because your grant is not approved.
This is not the first time that the Madrid president has made controversial statements about gender equality. In fact, the “popular” leader asked herself on the same day about Celebrating the last 8 months “when is men’s day” to refer to death statistics.
Ayuso highlighted an argument used by leaders who deny machismo, emphasizing that we are all “either mothers, cousins, sisters or friends” and that for this reason, “some figures also concern us” such as, for example, “the school dropout rate in Spain, which is much higher among men than among women; the number of suicides, which is three times higher among men than among women, 79% of trafficking victims are men”, etc.
The regional executive explains, however, that It has a 24-hour crisis center, which began operating in early 2023.to provide specialized care to victims of sexual violence 365 days a year, and will have another one this year with residential places and in which the regional government will invest 2.7 million euros.
Similarly, this year, a pioneering center will be opened to help women leave prostitution, in which they will be offered social, legal and psychological care and resources for their integration into the job market, as well as a specialized center for victims of violence with intellectual disabilities.
The opposition calls the announcement “perverse”
More Madrid called the victims and the feminist movement “derision” the care centre for male victims of sexual violence, which the PSOE has described as “bait” to see how “everyone got involved.” Meanwhile, Vox considers it “very good.”
The spokesperson for Más Madrid, Manuela Bergerot, criticized this measure in the corridors of the Madrid Assembly, where she described it as “quite perverse“that in this session, which “began with a minute of silence for the last woman murdered by gender-based violence”, its creation was proposed. “What the Community of Madrid needs is a comprehensive policy that addresses all sexual violence, but differentiating the cases and not treating them all in the same place,” added Bergerot.
For the secretary general of the PSOE-M, Juan Lobato, he considers having thrown the “bait”, while on the contrary he does it “tax breaks for millionaires”. “We must be very respectful with everyone and of course we must show particular sensitivity, especially with boys and girls who have suffered sexual assaults during their childhood,” he explained. The socialist understands that this is an “absolutely delicate issue and in which we must show maximum sensitivity” and not turn it into bait.
Finally, the vice-president of the Commission to Combat Gender Violence of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) and mayor of Alcorcón, Candelaria Testa, asked to wait to learn more about “the owner” and took the opportunity to make an “appeal to women and also to men” in search of “real equality.”
“But of course what we need is more resources, not just to stop the victims, to stop this bleeding, this scourge of sexist violence and, of course, to bring this awareness to the whole of society and to get out of this patriarchy which continues to suffocate us women,” she concluded.
