It started with a joke, but everything quickly became very serious. The comic Baby Jesus doesn’t hate sissiesby Don Julio, was intended to be a satire: it parodied children’s activity notebooks with a series of exercises that sought to ridicule homophobia. The Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers, however, found it to be in very bad taste: so much so that they reported the comic. for provocation to discrimination and hatred and sexual provocation, in addition to accusing him of “apology for pedophilia.” The publisher Fandogamia and the author then took advantage of another mockery: perhaps the complainants had not understood the irony of the work. Although ending up between lawyers and courts for some drawings was much less fun for them. Now, yes, they are smiling again: the judge has decreed the provisional dismissal and consequent archiving of the case, since “no crime is evident.”
The order of the Court of First Instance and Instruction number two of Quart de Poblet, dated October 21 and to which EL PAÍS had access, supports what the publisher and author defended from the first moment: it was always very clear that the work was directed to readers of legal age, with an evident comic spirit. “Focusing on the aforementioned book – in a tone of humor and parody, in attention to the freedom of expression guaranteed by article 20 of the Spanish Constitution -, for that adult audience that freely decides or not to attend said readings, also in attention to the ideological, religious and cult freedom (…) the case must be archived,” reads the judge’s text. “The sentence expresses exactly the reality of what happened,” says Pedro Medina, editor of Fandogamia. Although we will have to wait for the case to be closed: the order has been appealed, as Poland Castellanos, president of the Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers, confirms to this newspaper.
At the moment, the judge only needs a little more than two pages to put out a controversy that has grown bigger, between sectoral associations that defended freedom of expression and the billionaire—and now right-hand man of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump—Elon Musk. , who even commented on the comic on the social network X, of which he is the owner: “This is demented.” The order allows us to review part of that storm, through the arguments of the complainants: “They understand that the book in question contains coloring drawings full of hypersexualized images (…), offensive and degrading illustrations against the Church and of sexualization, being directed to children (…). They allude to phrases like ‘Catholics say that homosexuals offend God’, ‘The Bible was written more than 2,000 years ago by people full of prejudices’ or ‘The other option would be to admit that God is crappy and his Great Work is wrong.’ done.”
In other vignettes in the book, two lesbians end up burned at the stake by a priest, a game is proposed to help Manolito tell his parents that he is gay, or it is read: “You can get out of being homophobic.” “It’s ridiculous. Each page dismantles one of those excuses they have for hating people. If anything, the crime comes from his side,” Don Julio lamented last May, when the complaint was announced. The truth is that the work was distributed normally for weeks, under the label “activity book for adults.” Same as Being a fascist is wronga previous book by the same author and approach. The problem, according to Medina in May, arose when he realized that the synopsis of the comic on Amazon contained an error: “For ages six and up.” They immediately asked for it to be rectified, but in the meantime the case had exploded. And the complaint included precisely that information as one of its main arguments.
“Despite all the allegations made, upon receipt of the required documentation it is proven that there was a mere error, for which the publisher cannot be held responsible,” the order however writes. Nor did the judge share the indignation of Christian Lawyers at the most controversial page of the notebook: “Activity 6: Entanglement of whistles!” It consists of detecting which, among the penises of several drawn characters, is having anal sex with the young Bartolomé, on all fours. “Many people have notified us. It is the most barbaric thing we have ever encountered, the most aberrant thing I have ever seen. Neither those over three nor over 18 can disseminate these contents. “A baby is sodomized!” Castellanos told EL PAÍS in May. “But the character has a mustache! “All they can say is to support the foundations on which this booklet has been built,” Don Julio then responded.
The car now agrees with the cartoonist and his publisher. And they celebrate by announcing another good news for them: before the end of the year Fandogamia will publish a new book by Don Julio. It will be satirical, for adults. And, this time, about the history of Spain.
