Spain’s parliament on Thursday banned “comedy” bullfights featuring dwarfs in funny costumes. The decision was welcomed by disability rights groups but condemned by some remaining supporters.
It was common for gnomes in Spain to wear fireman or clown costumes to chase bulls without killing them at public events attended by the public and considered amusing.
While the tradition is decades old, its popularity has waned, and a law passed Thursday brings Spain closer to European Union guidelines on discrimination against people with disabilities.
“Spain has outgrown the past,” said Jesús Martin, director general of Spain’s Royal Commission for the Disabled, which advises the social rights ministry that lobbied parliament for a ban.
He continued: “Those who suffer from dwarfism have been the subject of ridicule in the squares in our country, and the idea that it is permissible to laugh at the differences in such shameful manifestations was widespread.”
While a group of remaining supporters of these shows protested in front of Parliament, denouncing the ban.
“They take it for granted that people are insulted or ridiculed, but on the contrary … their respect for us is admirable,” Daniel Calderon, a dwarf bullfighter, told the Spanish news agency.
Source: “AB”