**Note: This post was submitted as an article to the Sydney University magazine The Bull’s queer edition in August 2009**
Ah Spain! It’s full of flamenco, bull-fighters, and (my personal favourite) flamers! During my vacation I got to see them all, and none more loud and proud than the LGBTQ community of Spain and beyond when we rocked up to see the final parade and party for Barcelona Pride 2009.
Barcelona Pride week itself was spectacularly uneventful, though I did attend an LGBTQ tour of Barcelona the Friday before the parade, where I got to visit Spain’s first gay sex shop, Sestienda. I was also treated to an explanation of how Saint Sebastian was adopted as the saint for gay men to worship. I saw bookstores and plazas, discussed history and legislation, and got to see a lot of Barcelona in the process. With only eight people turning up for the tour, I was concerned that the parade and party scheduled for that Sunday would be a total flop.
I was wrong.
As I shuffled along a street listening to my iPod, thinking I was early for the celebrations, I was shocked to see a huge crowd ahead of me. Hurriedly putting away my headphones, I whipped out the camera lickety-split and began taking shots of all the floats.
Though in no way as large or long or hard (sorry couldn’t help myself!) as Sydney’s Mardi Gras, the parade had all the atmosphere it needed to kick everyone into party mode. The bears of Bearcelona were out in force throughout the night, with free rainbow and pink fans being thrown from floats to deal with the heat and humidity of the Spanish summer whilst also carrying important messages about condom use… and gay spa ads. Condoms in rainbow packets fell from the sky, exciting some and injuring many, as men and women in not much more than underwear – and sometimes less – threw handfuls from atop the bus floats.
Most exciting was the representation of other cultures, mainly Latin American, who came to represent their countries. Chilean and Colombian participants waved giant flags, representing their pride despite being often unseen and unheard in Latin America. Brazilian participants were also present, and the hiring of samba bands meant that those Brazilians were able to demonstrate their prowess. I admit, I found it incredibly difficult not to make a fool of myself by attempting to dance.
My only complaint is that there were not more women participating and that there was absolutely no representation or acknowledgement of bi- or pansexuality. Aside from one lesbian float, the women were usually tacked onto male-oriented floats or simply walking for charitable NGOs such as Amnesty International.
Following the parade was a giant free party, held in front of the palace and the famous magic fountain, which every weekend holds light shows at night. I will never forget the sensation of partying below and seeing the fountain alight with colour in front of the palace silhouette, with rainbow balloons, feathers, bubbles and sequins decorating the sky.
Nor will I forget the smiles on the faces of the passers-by who had no idea the event would be on. It seemed that every single person who came across the celebrations was invigorated by them. There were no protestors, no lousy smirks of “heh they’re gay”, and no homophobic groups lurking in the background – but it has taken a long time for Spain to get to this point.
Celebrating the achievements of Spanish queer activists is very important in a country which imprisoned an estimated 4000 homosexuals under dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled from 1939 to 1975. ‘Homosexual behaviour’ (as opposed to homosexual acts) were later outlawed in the vagrancy law reforms of 1954, calling homosexuality one of “the lowest levels of morality” and a “social danger”.
Many homosexuals (almost always men) were sent to labor camps and in later years to mental institutions, where they were subjected to ‘reparative therapies’ such as electric shock, a method still advocated by some extremist social conservatives in the western world. It wasn’t until the death of Franco in 1975 that homosexuality was decriminalised and the clandestine gay rights groups of the 60s could become public. Throughout the 1980s, lesbian groups finally began to emerge. These groups tended to remain separate from the male-run gay rights groups as attempts at unification were often met with conflict.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that queer rights really regained its focus in Spain. This was due to the amalgamation and creation of new LGBTQ groups with a united goal: the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Spain. The tides of public opinion were turning in their favour as the previously-Catholic country rebelled against old Francoist modes of thought, especially in regards to his regulation and restriction of women, sex and sexuality.
In 2004 the change was there for all to see, with the publication of a poll showing that 66% of Spaniards supported same-sex marriage. With that being an election year the socialist party (PSOE) and its leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero made same-sex marriage a core election promise. He was elected with a clear majority and all discriminatory legislation against queer individuals was removed in 2005. The legislation allowed same-sex couples not only the right to marry, but also to adopt. The legislation was heavily protested and lobbied against by the Catholic Church and its followers, however the government’s dedication to secularism meant their calls to “save the family” went heard but unheeded.
Responding to these complaints, Zapatero said: “There is no damage to marriage or to the family in allowing two people of the same sex to get married. Rather, these citizens now have the ability to organize their lives according to marital and familial norms and demands. There is no threat to the institution of marriage, but precisely the opposite: this law recognizes and values marriage.”
All in all, Spain is reforming itself away from the Francoist era with a renewed emphasis on secularism. This has led to reforms not only in terms of queer rights, but also in regards to women’s rights, the teaching of religion in schools and the funding of religious institutions by the Spanish Government. These changes are important not only for the Spain of tomorrow, but also in acknowledging the errors of the past in allowing just one interpretation of just one religion to rule as law in the personal lives of Spaniards.
