After being elected to Valencia’s regional assembly, Galcerán says she wants to be seen as a person, not for her disability
For decades she battled to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities were part of the conversation. The extent of the progress she had made, however, was laid bare recently when Mar Galcerán became Spain’s first parliamentarian with Down’s syndrome.
“It’s unprecedented,” the 45-year-old told the Guardian. “Society is starting to see that people with Down’s syndrome have a lot to contribute. But it’s a very long road.”
Her feat has been decades in the making. When Galcerán was 18 years old, she joined the conservative People’s party (PP) after being attracted to what she described as its embrace of tradition.
Slowly she worked her way up the party apparatus. Her commitment paid off last May when she was added as the 20th name on the list of candidates the PP was fielding in Valencia’s regional elections.
I wouldn’t be able to tell you specifically, but conservativism at its core is about opposing progress and maintaining “traditional values” like capitalism, nationalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, cis-heteronormativity, and abled supremacy, so it’s never good.
This is the party she represents: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Party_(Spain), a quick skim tells me they opposed same-sex marriage and have been involved in a lot of financial corruption.
I know nothing about Spain’s political parties, and I’m personally not a fan of conservative parties, but just to point out the obvious:
The whole reason this thread and news article exists seems to refute that. I know it’s only one data point, but the situation is notable on a global scale.
You’re having a fucking laugh, right? There are literally people in this thread saying (or upvoting those that say) this should be illegal.
I honestly don’t care how you’ve managed to convince yourself that what you recognise is a single anecdote, and is only getting global coverage because of how rare and unusual it is, somehow refutes the existence of abled supremacy, but it doesn’t. If anything, it proves its existence.
The idea that disabled people are seen or treated as equal and equitable in our societies is so wildly and wilfully ignorant, I honestly don’t have words…