Madrid metro memo tells staff to keep an eye on gay people
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Version 0 of 1. Authorities at Madrid’s metro have opened an investigation into an internal memo circulated to employees that flagged gay people as a problem group that needed extra vigilance. The memo notes several stops along the metro, detailing the groups that workers should check to ensure that they have valid metro tickets. On Line 2 between the stops of Sol and Las Rosas, it urges workers to keep an eye on “musicians, beggars and gays”. The memo was met with bewilderment by many employees, who saw it as discrimination, said Teodoro Piñuelas, from the UGT trade union which represents metro employees. The union then brought the memo to the attention of the metro authorities. “I don’t understand why it would assume that homosexuals wouldn’t pay for their tickets and that they need to be monitored. Why not tall people, or blondes or those who wear glasses?” Piñuelas told El País. After the memo was leaked to several news outlets on Wednesday, the managing director of the metro was one of the first to respond. “We have opened an investigation and will determine who is responsible for the unfortunate memo,” Ignacio González Velayos wrote on Twitter. Not long after, metro authorities weighed in on their official Twitter page, adding: “The metro condemns the memo.” On Thursday, the LGBT group COLEGA-Madrid said it had brought the memo to the attention of the public prosecutor responsible for hate crimes. “This is humiliating and discriminatory,” the group said in a statement. “It’s clear discrimination and harassment due to sexual orientation.” Another LGBT group, Arcópoli, said it planned to meet Metro authorities on Monday to demand explanations and urge the service to launch a campaign to combat discrimination. |