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| Predecessor | HazteOir[1][2][3] |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2013 inMadrid, Spain |
| Headquarters | Paseo de la Habana 200,Madrid, Spain |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Method | Internet activism,online petitions |
| Website | citizengo |
CitizenGO is anultra-conservative[4][5][6][7][8][9] advocacy group founded inMadrid, Spain, in 2013 by the ultra-Catholic and far-right[10][11][12][13][14] HazteOir organization,[1][2][3] a similar Spanish platform that has been opposing what they refer to as "gender ideology" since 2001.[15]
The foundation promotes petitions in 50 countries, mostly defending Christian causes,[16][17] and those opposingsame-sex marriage,[18][19] abortion,[16][20][21] andeuthanasia.[22]
TheEuropean Commission found CitizenGo to be one of main founders of far-right campaigns acrossEurope and theUnited Kingdom.[23][page needed]
CitizenGO was founded inMadrid, Spain, in September 2013 by HazteOir,[1][17] (whose founder and president is also Ignacio Arsuaga),[15] to expand its scope of action beyond Spanish-speaking countries,[18] advancing the use ofonline petitions as a form ofInternet activism to increase public participation in the democratic process.[24] In appealing to potential donors early into CitizenGO's existence, the founder and president Ignacio Arsuaga stated: "CitizenGO will produce a social benefit that we trust will impact human history. Abortionists, thehomosexual lobby, radicalsecularists, and champions ofrelativism will find themselves behind CitizenGO's containment wall".[25]
CitizenGO says that they have "team members located in fifteen cities on three continents" who facilitate users signing petitions in 50 countries[24] and 8 languages, with plans to add more. The CitizenGO Foundation is financially supported by online donations made by their members.[18] The CEO of CitizenGO is Álvaro Zulueta. The CitizenGO Foundation Board of Trustees is composed of Ignacio Arsuaga, Walter Hintz, Blanca Escobar,Luca Volontè (Unione dei Democratici Cristiani politician),Brian S. Brown (president of the anti-LGBT rightsNational Organization for Marriage),[26] Gualberto García, Alexey Komov (Russian Representative of the pro-Christian rightWorld Congress of Families, considered a close ally of pro-Vladimir Putin oligarchKonstantin Malofeev),[27][28] Alejandro Bermudez, and John-Henry Westen.
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In 2001, lawyer Ignacio Arsuaga founded HazteOir (literally, "Make yourself heard"). This organization later merged into and became part of CitizenGO, a move that was considered a "rebranding".[2][3]
The foundation has been linked, like HazteOir, toEl Yunque, a secret society of Mexican regional origin.[17][29][30][31]
In 2021, CitizenGO board memberLuca Volontè was sentenced to four years in prison for accepting bribes from Azerbaijan during theAzerbaijani laundromat in exchange for suppressing a report on Azerbaijan's human rights record. Some of these laundered funds were transferred to CitizenGO.[25]
Sociologists McLean and Stretesky describe CitizenGo as part of "a veritable miasma of anti-trans campaign groups [...] united in their antipathy toward transgender people," alongsideFiLiA,Fair Play for Women,Get the L Out, Keep Prisons Single Sex, Lesbian Rights Alliance,LGB Alliance,Sex Matters, andTransgender Trend.[32]
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CitizenGO promotes campaigns opposing abortion and euthanasia. CitizenGO has opposed the introduction of the "Estrela report" into theEuropean Parliament, which recommends member states to provide comprehensive sex education in schools and ensure access to abortions, among other things.[18]
In late May 2019, CitizenGO hosted a petition by "Right to Life" calling on streaming serviceNetflix to stop funding a legal challenge toGeorgia's controversialheartbeat abortion restriction bill. The group also called for subscribers to cancel their Netflix subscription as a sign of protest.[33]
It has also supported African activist Ann Kioko's campaign to investigate pro-abortion rights groupMarie Stopes International. After Kioko was put on trial CitizenGO used their platform to promote the idea that the Kenyan government wants to censor the protests of CitizenGO and otheranti-abortion outlets.[34]
In 2013, CitizenGO signed a declaration in support of theRussian law which had the stated purpose of protecting children from being exposed to homosexuality,[35][36] but had the practical effect that hate crimes against LGBTQ people increased by two to three times soon after its introduction.[37]
In February 2019, CitizenGO organized a petition calling onDC Vertigo to cancelMark Russell and Richard Pace'sSecond Coming comic series, which they regarded asblasphemous for its depiction ofJesus Christ.[38][39] Russell subsequently confirmed that it had been his decision to request the return of the rights to the series.[40][41]
In late May 2018, CitizenGO circulated a petition calling onDisneyland Paris to cancel a scheduledpride parade called the "Magical Parade" on 1 June 2019.[42][43]The Walt Disney Company rejected the petition and the Magical Parade went ahead in Paris.[44][45]
CitizenGO Africa opposesdecriminalising homosexuality in Kenya.[46] According to a 2021 investigation byMozilla Foundation, it also engaged in spreadingmisinformation concerningreproductive health policy in the country through a tweets and hashtags on Twitter as well as paying Kenyans to also tweet against debated legislation, which aimed to develop guidelines for surrogacy as well as improving reproductive health care and rights.[47][48]
In 2021, CitizenGO started a campaign to have the episode "Trigger Warning" from the TV seriesParadise PD removed from Netflix because of a depiction of Jesus Christ in which he is seen attacking his persecutors with machine guns and having sex with two women.[49]
In den vergangenen zehn Jahren hat sich die Anzahl der Lobby-Büros von ultrakonservativen Gruppen in Brüssel verfünffacht.
CitizenGo was set up in 2013 – the same year asVox – as an ultra-conservative version of the progressive campaign platforms Avaaz.org and MoveOn.org.
Just as hostile to LGBTI rights and abortion is the ultraconservative CitizenGO, started in Spain but now promoting petitions in 50 countries.
organized by ultra-conservative campaign group CitizenGO
Among these groups is CitizenGO, an ultraconservative Spain-based petition mill.
Banned at home, ultraconservative group internationalizes its anti-transgender campaign
La organización de extrema derecha, conocida por su dura posición en contra del colectivo LGTBI,
La asociación de extrema derecha
HazTeOir, which is CitizenGO's far-right Catholic affiliate in Spain that translates into "Make yourself heard,"
defence of Christian values
HazteOir, CitizenGo, Profesionales por la Ética, Centro Tomás Moro, Abogados Cristianos, Más Libres, Instituto para la Política Familiar, Organización del Bien Común... Son los lobbies ultracatólicos, que cuentan con el apoyo más o menos directo de una parte de la Conferencia Episcopal Española.
Volontè is also on the board of CitizenGo, a globalizing online mobilizing platform that grew out of the Spanish organization instrumental in promoting a bill to restrict abortion enacted in 2010.
CitizenGO, a Madrid-based Christian foundation whose principles include the belief that life begins at conception.
CitizenGo is affiliated via board member Alexey Komov to Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev, who is close to the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church, and has supported separatists in Ukraine'sDonetsk region, as well as far-right groups in the European Union.
El documento que presentaron a la embajada mexicana tenía la portada el nombre de CitizenGo, una de las organizaciones que ofrece apoyo internacional al Frente Nacional por la Familia, en México, y que el periodista de Proceso,Álvaro Delgado identificó como una de los tentáculos de El Yunque español que están detrás de las movilizaciones en México
Las denuncias de su vinculación con el Yunque empezaron a alejar a Hazte Oír de varios altos cargos de la Iglesia. De hecho, tras una sentencia de un juzgado de Madrid que consideró "contrastado y acreditado" la relación entre miembros de ambas organizaciones, el obispo de Getafe y el arzobispo de Toledo anunciaron que no apoyarían las iniciativas del colectivo liderado por Arsuaga y le instaba a desaparecer de sus parroquias.
A veritable miasma of anti-trans campaign groups have wafted in to public discourse in recent years. These have included, but are not limited to, Authentic Equity Alliance, CitizenGo, FiLiA, Fair Play for Women, Get the L Out, Keep Prisons Single Sex, Lesbian Rights Alliance, LGB Alliance, MayDay4Women, Object!, Safe Schools Alliance, Sex Matters, Transgender Trend, and Woman's Place UK. Although the ostensible focus of these groups is varied, they are united in their antipathy toward transgender people.
