Stefano Gennarini
(ZENIT News – Center for Family and Human Rights / Mexico City, 08.22.2023).- A Mexican tribunal found former congressman Rodrigo Iván Cortés guilty of gender-based political violence for referring to transgender congressman Salma Luévano as a “man who self-identifies as a woman.”
Luévano appeared in the Mexican Congress last year in mock bishop’s clothing to present a bill to punish “hate speech” by churches. In a video statement, Rodrigo Iván Cortés said the trans-identifying politician was “a man who describes himself as a woman, who demands respect, but it is exactly what he does not give, he asks for what he does not give, with tremendous disrespect.
Luévano, who obtained a seat in Congress thanks to quotas requiring LGBTQI legislators, sued Cortés for political gender-based violence against him in Mexico’s electoral tribunal and won the initial lawsuit earlier this year.
The court said that Cortés’ statement “caused digital violence, symbolic violence, psychological violence, and sexual violence” against the trans legislator. Among the factors weighing against Cortés the court cited the “asymmetric relation” between the two, because Cortés “is a privileged white man, with more economic means, and a Catholic.” The court also said the sentence was reached by applying a “gender-perspective” and an “intersectional focus” with a view to “transform social reality.”
Cortés, who is the President of the Frente Nacional por la Familia, Mexico’s best known pro-life and pro-family organization, challenged this ruling as unfounded and illegal. The electoral tribunal, an administrative tribunal of sorts with jurisdiction over political disputes, should not have had entertained the lawsuit because he was a “civilian” and not a politician, he said in interviews online.
On final appeal, last week, the Mexican electoral tribunal upheld the initial sentence against Cortés and condemned the well-known pro-life and pro-family leader to publish a court-authored apology every day for a month and to pay over $1200 in fines. The tribunal banned his tweets from social media platforms and ordered that he be subject to training on gender-based violence.
Rodrigo Iván Cortés, President of the Frente Nacional por la Familia.
Cortés will also be listed as an offender for violence against women on a registry that would prevent him from physically entering the Mexican House of Representatives. A bill currently pending in the Mexican congress would also prohibit anyone on this gender offender registry from running for office.
“The real purpose of this conviction is to silence me from saying what every concerned citizen needs to hear—that these actions and proposed laws are driving forward a radical agenda in Mexico, which poses a very serious threat to the wellbeing of our society, especially our children,” Cortés said.
“I remain committed to the peaceful expression of truth, the defense of our fundamental freedoms, and the protection of our children,” he emphasized.
“I reject violence on all grounds,” he emphasized, against the accusations that his statements were a form of gender-based violence. “One need only watch the videos of unrest in our Congress to see clearly that it is not me and my organization that is bringing chaos and disorder into Mexico’s political institutions.”
After having exhausted all domestic remedies, Cortés plans to appeal the ruling of the electoral tribunal to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights.
The Mexican court that condemned Cortes is not isolated. The Biden administration and other Western governments are at the forefront of promoting censorship and control of speech around the world through policies to address technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
Cortés is being represented by the American-based nonprofit law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom.
