Billboard Chris arrested in Spain over his iconic sign

[00:00:00]So I had some Spanish signs made of my message and I went to the main town square in Madrid. It's called Puerta del Sol and I was there for probably 4 minutes.

[00:00:12]I had just recorded a 1-minute intro after setting up my tripod which I set up beside a big pillar so I'd be out of the way and this is a huge town square.

[00:00:22]It's 80 yards wide, 100 yards long.

[00:00:25]I wasn't near anybody. I recorded this little intro and as I'm finishing my intro and you can watch this on social media, the police pull up and right away they told me that what I was doing was prohibido.

[00:00:37]>> [music] >> Because it's important we get this message out. Which is los niños no pueden consentir bloqueadores de la pubertad.

[00:00:51]Spain has done nothing really to stop this. They're giving puberty blockers to 12-year-olds.

[00:01:01]They're following up with the opposite sex's hormones.

[00:01:04]They're sterilizing kids who have come to this incredibly harmful belief that they were born in the wrong body, that they are transgender and the whole thing's a lie.

[00:01:14]There's no such thing as a transgender child. They're called girls and boys and the affirming message is they're beautiful just as they are.

[00:01:24]So I'm going to be out here having conversations and I've got the police rolling up right now.

[00:01:31]Hola.

[00:01:37]How are you?

[00:01:39]Do you speak English? Hablas I'm allowed to record.

[00:01:43]It's not streaming.

[00:01:50]Hablas inglés?

[00:01:53]Okay.

[00:02:00]>> We're going to have a problem here if you don't speak English cuz I don't know how to speak Spanish.

[00:02:09]It's It's not prohibited.

[00:02:12]It's not pre-prohibited.

[00:02:15]I researched the laws before I came here.

[00:02:17]>> Well, one of our favorite guys is Billboard Chris or Billboard Chris Elston for his full name. I don't think legally Billboard is part of his name, but it's how people know him because he's got this brilliant but simple approach to dealing with the issue of transgenderism, especially in children.

[00:02:35]He literally stands there with an invitation to talk to people. He has a billboard with a very simple and in fact, sometimes irrefutable statement like, "No child is born in the wrong body." or "Children cannot consent to puberty blockers." Really stark statements and he'll stand in the busy town square and I've seen him do it everywhere from Davos, Switzerland, the heart of the World Economic Forum to Ireland, to America, of course, and here in Canada. So, I was not surprised to see that he was in Madrid, Spain and neither was I surprised, even though I was disappointed to see the police gave him a hassle in Madrid. Joining us now, freshly repatriated to Canada, is our friend Billboard Chris. Chris, great to see you again. Welcome back. Um you have the the pure simplicity of what you do is I think the source of power. You just put a basic statement out there and invite the world to engage with you. I'm not going to call you low energy in terms of like it takes energy to do it, but you don't you're not raising the energy of the conversation. You're responding with compassion and facts.

[00:03:49]It's not like you're not a shouter, is what I'm saying. You absorb energy from critics. Tell me what happened when you took your trademark uh conversation to Spain?

[00:04:01]>> Yeah, so I went to Madrid just for 2 days, including plus 2 days of travel, but I was invited uh by an organization called HazteOir, which they do things like us. They've been around for 25 years, and they like freedom, and they are pro-life, and they don't think we should be sterilizing children with puberty blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones, and all these normal things. So, they also have an international offshoot called CitizenGO, which does work all over the world, and I've collaborated with them. So, they were kind enough to invite me and to give me a little award.

[00:04:33]And then, because I'm all that way in Spain, I thought, "Let's go out on the street." So, I had some Spanish signs made of my message, and I went to the main town square in Madrid. It's called Puerta del Sol.

[00:04:46]And I was there for probably 4 minutes.

[00:04:48]I had just recorded that 1-minute intro after setting up my tripod, which I set up beside a big pillar, so I'd be out of the way. And this is a huge town square.

[00:04:58]It's 80 yd wide, 100 yd long.

[00:05:01]I wasn't near anybody. I recorded this little intro, and as I'm finishing my intro, and you can watch this on social media, the police pull up. And right away, they told me that what I was doing was prohibido.

[00:05:13]>> I know what that means, and I don't speak Spanish.

[00:05:17]>> That's right, and I don't speak it much either. So, we had a language barrier, but I studied the law before I went, and I spoke with a lawyer in Spain the night before, and I know I'm allowed to do this.

[00:05:29]So, anyway, long story short, after 10 or 15 minutes, another police car pulled up, and they seized my phone, they seized my tripod, they seized my signs, they then seized my other phone. I use an old phone sometimes when I'm talking to people to show them research.

[00:05:47]And I had to go to the police station where I was held for almost 2 hours with no communication. I was able to get a message out through my Apple Watch to some friends in Spain who got me lawyers, and the lawyers showed up about 45 minutes later, and magically I was released with a fine, but there's no number on the fine.

[00:06:09]So, this whole thing is just a bit of a gong show, and I'm going to appeal for sure because I don't think police should be able to abuse their authority like that. I've been reviewing all the legal fees regarding this situation, and they violated many things in the way they treated me.

[00:06:25]And we can't let that stand because I'm just a normal guy who thinks we shouldn't be sterilizing kids who have been taught that they're born in the wrong body, and I should be able to do that.

[00:06:33]>> Well, I like the fact that you know the law and you study it before you go to each jurisdiction, and I've seen you deploy that when police come over. They They really don't know what to do with you. I mean, they know you're different.

[00:06:45]They can pretty quickly detect that you're not from wherever you are. Like you're you're Canadian or they might think you're an American.

[00:06:54]Um so, they don't know what to do, and they think, "Well, better safe than sorry.

[00:06:58]Let's arrest this guy."

[00:07:01]Um so, you were held for 2 hours and then 45 minutes for the lawyers to come.

[00:07:04]Did you get back on the streets? Did you take Did you get back possession of your uh your phone, your other equipment? Did you get your billboards back?

[00:07:14]>> I did. I'm missing one of my my lapel mics, so I don't know. They just misplaced it or something. But yeah, I got out. I had tapas with the lawyers, and then together with the lawyers, we went right back to the same spot in the town square.

[00:07:27]>> Well, that sounds like a very pleasant afternoon if you can handle the stress of it. Be arrested, be redeemed, have some tapas with the lawyers, and then go out on the street. I'd say you had a busy day.

[00:07:40]>> I did. And you know, when these things happen, Ezra, I'm calm up here, >> Yeah.

[00:07:44]>> but your body still has a reaction.

[00:07:47]>> Yeah, the adrenaline kicking in.

[00:07:48]>> Apple Watch kept interrupting me telling me that my heart rate is abnormally high considering I'm not moving cuz it was running at about 110 to 120.

[00:07:56]Cuz you don't know what these guys are going to do. The same thing happened to me in in Brussels right after I'd spoken at the European Parliament. I went out on the street. They did the same thing there. They did what was called an administrative arrest at first saying I just need to pay a fine. Well, the next thing I know I'm at the first police station and I'm in handcuffs and then I'm taken to another station where I'm put in jail and strip searched.

[00:08:15]>> Oh my god.

[00:08:15]>> So >> Yeah, I you know, I was sort of joking about it being a busy day and just the arc the the the turn of events in that day was so incredible, but I think authorities um you know, in the the whole world over I think are turning against freedom of speech. I think maybe America is still fairly free, but I I just online I see France, the UK, Australia, Canada all shepherding in more censorship laws either on what you can say or you have to prove your ID and identify yourself before going online. I really think that the powers that be are hostile to freedom of speech because they want to control all the debates, especially controversial subjects like transgenderism and children. I think that that I mean, I remember back when Twitter was owned by Jack Dorsey before it was sold to uh Elon Musk, they censored transgenderism harder than any other subject. Um they would censor if you dead named someone or misgendered them or said he instead of they. They would censor you within minutes. It's like they More more than they would censor things on radical Islam or terrorism, they were obsessed by your subject. Speaking of which, let me ask you, how has Twitter been treating you since Elon Musk in in the Let's say the last year. Are you Is it still a free form for you?

[00:09:47]>> Yeah, it's great for me now. Before Elon Musk bought the platform, there was a 13-month period where every single one of my posts was deemed adult content. So, every picture was hidden, every video, and that made it impossible to grow. But as soon as Elon acquired X, I was able to get that lifted.

[00:10:05]And it's fine now. Elon actually subscribes to me. He pays me $5 a month, Ezra.

[00:10:10]>> Come on.

[00:10:12]>> I do the same for him though. So, it's a wash.

[00:10:14]>> He subscribes to you. You're the That's a That's such a a signal.

[00:10:20]Um I mean, cuz of course transgenderism is a topic that is close to home with him.

[00:10:25]And he he speaks about it with some pain.

[00:10:28]Um I won't get into I mean, he he talks about it publicly that one of his children was caught up in the cult.

[00:10:34]Um I think he must admire what you're doing.

[00:10:36]>> Yeah, and I think his influence has spread to other social media platforms as well because what happened a few years ago after he acquired it, we had what were known as the Twitter files where it was exposed that the US government was basically directing these executives within Twitter to censor conservatives' accounts. And the same thing was happening at Facebook and YouTube, etc. And once all this came out, we had Zuckerberg start to wake up.

[00:11:00]And now, I wouldn't have been able to be on Facebook before. I hadn't even tried back then cuz I knew I wouldn't last.

[00:11:06]But now my Facebook account is growing rapidly, Instagram's growing rapidly, YouTube's doing fine.

[00:11:11]So, I think in that respect things are better. But we have all these governments around the world, as you have just noted, who are trying to clamp down on our freedom of speech. And if Democrats win this next election in a few years, it's all just going to be repeated again. And Democrats haven't given up 1 in on transgender insanity.

[00:11:29]They're determined to die on this hill, and we need to make sure that they do die on this hill.