This is a three-part piece. The first is a history of lesbian involvement in Pride in Spain. This, the second part, is a guide to Madrid related sites connected to Orgullo, and some of the history attached to those places.  . This part, the last part is much the same as the second, except the focus is on the rest of Spain. It is a list of Orgullo sites around Spain that have some connection to lesbian involvement. They are not listed as a route to visit, because some of them are actual walking routes of historical Orgullo marches. Others are cultural venues that are worth exploring, even if they do not have lesbian specific exhibitions going on at the moment.

Route

Andalucía

Alcalá de Guadaíra

Ayuntamiento de Alcalá de Guadaíra, located at Plaza el Duque, 1, is where the mayor of the city reaffirmed their membership in the Red de Municipios Orgullosos in June 2018. At the announcement, the mayor pledged to “work across the board in a real, plural and diverse equality. Municipal policies have to walk through the visualization of diversity to advance towards respect, education in diversity, acceptance and freedom of all sexual conditions without prejudice, the expression of feelings without social fears, and so on. In short, the normalization of the realities of the diverse world in which we live now and forever.” The event was LGBT centric, with no specific mentions of lesbians beyond being part of the collective.

Sevilla

The 1978 Sevilla Orgullo route was from Calle de Calatrava where Sindicato Comisiones Obreras had an office to a spot near Alameda de Hércules, before continuing on to Plaza del Triunfo to the Prado de San Sebastián.  Around thirty people finished the march.  The 1979 Sevilla Orgullo followed a similar route.

Castilla y León

Salamanca

A pride parade was held in 2021 in the city, organized by Iguales de Salamanca y de la Usual.  They marched at Plaza de la Constitución starting at 7pm and ended at Plaza Mayor at 8:15 PM.  They passed through Avenida Mirat and Calle Zamora.  Around 200 people participated.  Among the slogans chanted were, “Soy lesbiana y castellana”.  While there were visible lesbians, there were also transactivists present who advocated the believe that transwomen could be lesbians and condemned Carmen Calvo for not supporting the proposed self-ID law.  Much of the march focused specifically on transrights and advocating for self-ID, with homosexual rights and sex-based rights being marginalized.  Most lesbians present at Pride supported these positions.

Melilla

Melilla

CCOO Comisiones Obreras, located at Plaza Primero de Mayo 1, published a statement in June 2020 ahead of Orgullo state that there was discrimination against lesbians, bisexual women and transwomen in the workforce.  LGBTI-phobic hatred and sexism was particularly problematic for women because it harmed their economic well-being.  The statement then discussed more about trans rights, and the need for depathologization of trans people.  It missed discussing the specific sexism that lesbian and bisexual women faced. Melilla’s LGBT population did not have their own major pride event.  Instead, delegations of supporters of LGBT rights traveled to other events like Madrid Pride.  In 2020, CCOO Melilla did not travel to participate in Orgullo like past years because the event was canceled because of covid-19 restrictions in Madrid.

AMLEGA, located at Calle Teniente Casaña, 23, is Asociación Melillense de Lesbianas, Gays, Transexuales y Bisexuales. They opened their new offices at the location in late February 2019. One of the main functions of their offices is to carry out rapid HIV testing, regardless of sexual orientation.  The other is to host the Observatorio Mellillense contra el odio al colectivo LGTBfóbico. 

The association was founded in April 2005. They primarily support International LGTBI Pride Day on June 28, International Day against LGTBIphobia and World Day Against HIV-AIDS. Most of their programming focused on gay men and transgender people, with little to no support of lesbian specific goals or programming aimed at and in support of lesbians and bisexual women. Amelga’s membership was around 50 members in 2013.  Most of them were gay men and a number of lesbians.  They had few bisexuals and transexual members.  Leadership at that time had the goal of trying to attract more bisexual and transexual members as they were an even smaller minority in the city, and suffered their own unique discrimination that included discrimination by homosexuals. In 2021, they condemned graffiti on the COGAM offices that accused COGAM of being misogynist and lesbophobic.

Palacio de la Asamblea, located at Plaza de España, s/n, is an art deco style building designed by Enrique Nieto y Nieto in 1932.  The building itself was started in the 1938 and completed in 1940.  In June 2018, the rainbow flag representing LGBT people flew from the building in honor of the 14th edition of North Africa Pride that was being held in the city. The flag was delivered to the building by representatives from Amlega, and was formally received by Deputy Minister for Women, Isabel Moreno at a press conference. One of the themes of past North Africa Pride events was the double discrimination faced by lesbians for being both women and homosexuals.

Puerto Deportivo Noray‘s Manhattan room hosted Melilla’s 2012 Pride celebrations.  It started with a reading of Amlega’s manifesto by journalist Eder Barandiaran, followed by the ‘Arcoiris y Nubarrón’ award ceremony.  It also included a party and a drag show with transvestites, drag queens, comedians, strippers and go-go dancers.  Lesbians and bisexual women attended the events.

Valencia

Valencia

Moviment d’Alliberament Gay del Pais Valencià (MAGPV) was founded in the late 1970s in Valencia. In 1980, they sought a permit to hold a pride protest but were denied one by the civil government because of a lack of clarity in the purpose of the march and because they lacked support from political parties.  The group decided to hold a rally with banners at Plaza de la Virgin in response. MAGPV was re-organized and a lesbian group was re-established inside the organization.  This group worked on a number of issues including STD prevention, police harassment against transvestite sex works and on co-organizing homosexual cultural events. Both MAGPV and its lesbian group adopted their own model of identity politics focused around community but rejected Anglo-Saxon models of discourse around sexual identity.

Lambda Collective, located at Carrer de la República Argentina, 22, was founded in 1986 in Valencia. The group would be involved in various demonstrations every year advocating for gay and lesbian rights as part of their organizational activities.  On 28 June until 1992, they joined the Pride parade in Valencia as participants and marchers after a long break from the event of several years.  They largely took over the work at Valencia Pride that had previously been done by MAGPV.