Male rape centre a ‘frivolous’ waste of money, says Spain’s equality ministry
Plans for a £600,000 male rape centre in Madrid have been dismissed by Spain’s equality minister as a “frivolous” waste of money.
Ana Redondo described the proposal by Isabel Diaz Ayuso, Madrid’s conservative president, as “Trumpian” and a move that would pit victims against one another.
Ms Diaz Ayuso announced the centre on Thursday, saying Madrid already had rape crisis centres for women but none for men.
As Spain’s first specialised centre for male victims of sexual violence, the centre would tell men “we are also here for them”.
“The Madrid public health system treats approximately 100 men who are victims of rape every year,” the regional premier said.
“It is a trend that is on the rise and the numbers would increase yet further if it were not for the fact that many do not talk about [being abused] or do not report it for fear of being stigmatised,” she added.
The Madrid administration estimates the 24-hour crisis centre, which will be staffed by a team of psychologists, social workers and legal experts, will cost €700,000.
“Unfortunately, a considerable number of male minors who are victims of sexual violence in childhood are being detected, as well as adult men who suffer abuse, for example, in the context of practices such as ‘chemsex’, and do not dare to report it,” Ms Diaz Ayuso said.
The Madrid government reported that its care services have attended to 250 boys who have been the victims of sexual abuse so far this year.
However, Ms Redondo said the proposed centre would only serve to “divide society”.
She accused Ms Diaz Ayuso of getting her priorities wrong, saying that organisations for child victims of sexual abuse already existed but were underfunded by Madrid’s regional government.
According to interior ministry data from 2023, women made up 87 per cent of the victims of sexual assaults and abuse, a figure that rises to 90 per cent in the case of rape. Meanwhile, 91 per cent of the reported victims of sexual harassment were women.
Madrid currently has two rape crisis centres and two facilities to assist with the recovery of victims of sexual violence, all specifically for women.
Madrid’s proposal for the male rape centre comes as Ms Diaz Ayuso emerges as a rising star of the conservative People’s Party as a result of her liberal stance on social and economic issues. A self-proclaimed champion of freedom, she is widely seen as a potential future prime minister of Spain and frequently leads the charge against Spain’s socialist-led national government.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, her administration loosened restrictions in open defiance of the government of Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister. She has also used local powers to reduce wealth taxes to a minimum and refused to implement a national law on rent controls.
Ms Diaz Ayuso has also attacked the Spanish government’s ultra-liberal transgender laws, which allow citizens to change gender on their official ID cards on request with no need to prove psychological or lifestyle incompatibilities with their designated sex.
Madrid passed a counter-reform, which, while it cannot repeal the core principles of the national law, means that access to gender-sensitive facilities such as toilets is not guaranteed by an individual’s stated sex. Guarantees of LGBT-related content in schools were also watered down.
Ms Diaz Ayuso’s Madrid government warned earlier this year of several cases in which it said alleged sexual offenders were attempting to gain access to women’s rape shelters after changing their gender to female.
Meanwhile, Candelaria Testa, the deputy president of Spain’s committee against gender violence, urged politicians to refrain from “seeking headlines” and wait and see how the centre would operate in practice.