This is a quick history of Partido Comunista’s intersections with lesbians, and to a lesser extent the broader LGTB movement in Spain since the party’s founding in 1921 by the youth movement inside PSOE. This was cobbled together from existing material in other pieces, with some quickly written text for additional context. It is possible someone has a better long term historical right up, and if I can be pointed that, please point me.
The Spanish Restoration (1874 – 1931)
Partido Comunista de España (PCE) was founded on 14 November 1921.Members of PSOE’s youth wing had tried to create a communist youth group inside PSOE’s structure, but the party rejected their request. This group had wanted to address the role of communism more inside the party but the socialists were hesitant to do so. The following year, Bolshevik sympathized within PSOE tried to create Partido Comunista Obrero Español and they in turn had their affiliation with PSOE rejected. PCE came out of these two groups. At the time, both groups were largely male dominated and believed in traditional gender roles. Neither group intentionally sought out to challenge these, even as they wanted to change Spain’s broader class based economic system that saw lower classes being actively repressed.
PCE’s 1927 program was revolutionary for its time, but it did little to advance the specific sex based repression felt by lesbians. The program called for:
- Abolition of Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship and of the monarchy,
- Creation of a república federativa popular (federal popular republic),
- Recognition of independence for Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Morocco,
- Total freedom of association,
- Expropriation of large estates and distribution of land to peasants,
- Organization of workers’ councils in industry,
- Formation of a central committee for revolution consisting of representatives from several parties as well as a military committee, and
- A planned insurrection in Madrid.
The last item was never carried out because the Communist Party in Russia, CNT in Spain and Basque nationalists were not willing to get on board with the plan.
One of the main women involved with PCE at this time was Dolores Ibárruri, who was a defender of the traditional rights of women within a communist framework. She worked alongside some lesbians like María Martínez Sierra with whom she co-founded the Comité Nacional de Mujeres contra la Guerra y el Fascismo in 1933. Her political ideas related to homosexuality do not appear to be very clear, or at least have not come down to us in modern history as playing a role in her activism, either in active opposition or in support of it. Her role in supporting traditional gender roles in a communist framework though would have been problematic for lesbians, as lesbians existed outside those norms.
Second Spanish Republic and the Spanish Civil War (1931 – 1939)
PCE entered the 1931 elections as a relatively minor party, with their leader in prison and only released so he could take his seat in the Congreso de Diputados.
Little changed in the outlook of PCE during the Second Republic when it came to the role of women: Partido Comunista de España tended to support traditional gender roles in Spain and were not revolutionary in challenging these norms in Spanish society. This continued through the Francoist period and parts of the Democratic Transition period where there were stories of new female militants finding it difficult to join without a male introduction.
Despite the hostility towards women, PCE was at times more tolerant of homosexuality, and specifically male homosexuality. The Ley de Vagos y Maleantes formally removed homosexuality as a crime from the books in 1933, except among members of the military. Beggars, ruffians, pimps and prostitutes were still considered criminals. The law was passed 4 August 1933, being approved unanimously in the PSOE and Communist dominated Congreso de Diputados. [1]
Francoist Spain (1938 – 1975)
LGB and transsexual activist organizations in Madrid started emerging in the early 1970s from the communist community, integrating their Marxist ideology into their activism, in the dying days of the regime. Amanda Klein, a member of the community party, was one of the main people bringing this into the movement in the early 1970s. Barcelona was at the forefront of this Spanish lesbian and gay activist movement, a place the city would continue to hold into the transition period. The Barcelona movement was inspired greatly by the French movement across the border, not from the emerging British and American homosexual rights movements. These early Spanish activists saw themselves at the forefront of creating a new social consciousness that would change Spanish society by challenging gender norms. This movement differed from the American and British one because it was not about securing rights or seeking legal status and also because it did not seek to create alliances with political parties, unions or other leftist organizations.
Spanish democratic transition (1975 – 1982)
Women in Partido Comunista de España very quickly disassociated themselves with feminist demands that came out of the immediate democratic transition period, including demands for legal abortion and the acceptance of lesbianism. Instead, the women of PCE wanted to focus on more general democratic demands. [2]
In the lead up to the Jornadas de Granada in 1979, the issue of double militancy became a bigger one with some saying it was not possible and others arguing it was. Liga Comunista Revolucionaria (LCR) backed down on the issue at the last moment, leaving Movimiento Comunista de Asturias (MCA) standing alone on the issue. [3]
The political party Partit Feminista de Catalunya was formally organized in 1977 by Organització Feminista Revolucionària. They were originally a Leninist Marxist party, but gradually became a feminist Marxist party. They supported the founding of Partido Feminista de España in February 1979, and that year supported the slate Moviment Comunista de Catalunya in the 1979 municipal elections. After failing to create a unified ticket of feminists for the 1980 regional elections, the party backed Bloc d’Esquerra d’Alliberament Nacional, which promoted their platform on women’s rights. They party eventually was renamed and became a state Lesbians have always been highly active in the organization. The Jornades sobre Sexualitat took place in 1979, organized by Partit Feminista.
Asamblea de Mujeres de Granada (AMG) came into existence in 1976 following the general resurgence of feminist activities in the at the Universidad de Granada following Franco’s death. The city was primed for such an organization as issues surrounding women had begun to become quite heated around Universidad de Granada as women found the situation quite conservative and repressive, and responded to that by vocalizing their opposition to the environment. They were formally constituted by members of the Partido Comunista, Movimiento Comunista and other leftist organizations. They joined COFEE by 1977, and worked with other feminist activists in regional Andalucía through Coordinadora Andaluza de Organizaciones Feministas. Members attended the I Jornadas sobre Sexualidad in 1983 in Madrid along with the Encuentro Estatal sobre el derecho al Aborto in Madrid in 1981. Members also attended the II Jornadas sobre Lesbianismo in Madrid in 1988. The group was actively engaged in the debate around women’s sexuality and women’s bodies as it related to issues like abortion and male violence.
The Asamblea de Mujeres de Granada (AMG) was the main group around which lesbians in the city organized in the transition period. AMG came into existence in 1976 following the general resurgence of feminist activities in the at the Universidad de Granada following Franco’s death. The city was primed for such an organization as issues surrounding women had begun to become quite heated around Universidad de Granada as women found the situation quite conservative and repressive, and responded to that by vocalizing their opposition to the environment. They were formally constituted by members of the Partido Comunista, Movimiento Comunista and other leftist organizations. AMG joined COFEE by 1977, and worked with other feminist activists in regional Andalucía through Coordinadora Andaluza de Organizaciones Feministas. Members attended the I Jornadas sobre Sexualidad in 1983 in Madrid along with the Encuentro Estatal sobre el derecho al Aborto in Madrid in 1981. Members also attended the II Jornadas sobre Lesbianismo in Madrid in 1988. The group was actively engaged in the debate around women’s sexuality and women’s bodies as it related to issues like abortion and male violence.
The first wave of homosexual rights activism started in the immediate post Franco period, was around the repeal of ley sobre peligrosidad y rehabilitación social. The first wave was oriented in and around the fronts movement. The front movement in Spain itself came into existence in the 1930s in the era of the Second Republic as an electoral alliance between different groups on the left, and expressed politically through the Frente Popular as an electoral block in the Cortes. The historiography of fronts in Spain in the period after that is subject to large number of disputes by historians and academics. Who was the movement aimed at? Who controlled it? Who were its primary components? What is known is that in the last days of Franco and into the democratic transition period, left wing groups in Spain borrowed organizational ideas from the Popular Front on how to organize and align with each other to push forward their own specific interests, be it for regional issues or classes of people. Among these Front groups for communists and Front groups for homosexual rights. The gay rights movements in Catalonia, the Basque Country, Valencia and the Balearic Islands were often tied into regional nationalist struggles.
Activists who would play critical roles in the future began to appear on the scene in the Front movement even before the death of Franco in November 1975, including Gretel Ammann, who was able to be more public with her activism in the transition period. By 1976, she had joined Moviment Comunista de Catalunya and participated in the 27 May 1976 Primeres Jornades Catalanes de la Dona.
The Fronts movement in the transition period was inspired by Marxist ideas, that liberation for groups came through working class struggles. At the beginning of the democratic transition, they were already open to including the fight against homosexual repression as part of broader class struggles. They also understood that homosexual rights could not be understood in isolation.
Lesbians who joined the fronts groups in Spain often did so because they collaborated with other groups that fought classism, patriarchal structures and machoism. These homosexual front organizations they joined, including Front Homosexual d´Action Révolutionnaire, were also often open to heterosexuals and homosexual identity was not the most important component to their activism. These liberation front groups were inclusive, where other homosexual rights groups and feminist groups were not.
In this early period, the most active homosexual front movement was in Barcelona. These groups would set the national agenda when it came to demands from the gay rights movement, would send out its militants to other parts of the country and shape national discourse for much of the early transition until they were finally displaced by militants in Madrid. Front groups were active in many other parts of the country, drawing attention to issues on a regional and provincial level. Most of this activity appears limited to Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia, the Comunidad de Madrid, Navarre, Valencia, the Canary Islands, Aragon, and Andalucía.
The most important goal in homosexual rights organizations was the repeal of the ley sobre peligrosidad y rehabilitación social. It was the thing that consistently brought gay men and lesbians to the streets to protest during the early transition period. After the repeal of ley sobre peligrosidad y rehabilitación social in January 1979, there was a split in the men’s homosexual rights community in Spain. One group consisted of gays and lesbians who were primarily activists because they wanted to be out and free from prosecution for their orientation. With the law having been repealed, they wanted to move on to dancing, flirting and going out at night. They separated themselves from liberation activists who were focused on liberation politics and who condemned entertainment venues. Lesbians represented a third split following law’s repeal, desiring to become visible, step out of the shadow of gay men’s organizations and follow their own paths. This led to the creation of a number of lesbian specific groups and lesbian specific conferences in 1979 and the early 1980s. Still, lesbians remained largely invisible.
Movimiento Democrático de Homosexuales de Madrid (MDH) was founded in 1977 and had links to Partido Comunista de España. They defended the participation of lesbians in homosexual rights activities but their organization had no lesbian members in its own ranks.[4]
Frente de Liberación Homosexual de Castilla (FLHOC) was founded in Madrid in 1977 from three principal organizations, Movimiento Democrático de Homosexuales (MDH), Frente Homosexual de Acción Revolucionaria (FHAC) and Agrupación Mercurio. FHAC was notable because unlike some other left-wing and communist aligned homosexual rights organizations of the time, it actually counted lesbians among its militants. FLHOC showed solidarity with Marxist causes, attending May 1 demonstrations in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981.
In 1977, the greatest number of homosexual militants in Madrid came from Mercurio, with others drawn from Movimiento Democrático de Homosexuales (MDH) which had connections to PCE and Frente Homosexual de Acción Revolucionaria (FHAR) which had links to Liga Comunista Revolucionaria. The latter was the only group that had a significant number of women involved with it. Lesbians turned out in large numbers to many of their collective actions, but were not organized into any specific group.[5]
Parque García Sanabria in Santa Cruz de Tenerife held on 27 June 1978 what was described by El Eco de Canarias as an accidental concentradion of gays who were members of the Partido Democrático de Homosexuales de la Región Canaria. Around 200 homosexuals attended, with a banner that said, “No a la Ley de Peligrosidad Social. 25 de junio, día del orgullo Gay” and chanting slogans like “Libertad Sexual”, “No a la Ley de Peligrosidad Social” y “Suárez escucha, los gays están en lucha”. Pictures of the event show a few women present. The march was not officially authorized, and the police commissioner exhorted protesters to dissolve and then requested reinforcements when they refused to do so. The police took their banner. The march began at Ramblas del General Franco and was headed to the city center when it was disrupted at Parque García Sanabria. The city played host to the march in the Canary Islands because of the presence of Universidad de La Laguna, the only university in the Islands. Like other universities in Spain, it had attracted clandestine political activities during 1960s and 1970s, including by members of the juventudes socialista, comunista and the demócrata cristianas.
María Dolors Calvet of Partido Socialista Unificado de Cataluña, activist Empar Pineda from Barcelona Movimiento Comunista de Cataluña, Assemblea de Catalunya, and later Madrid Comisión pro-derecho al aborto en Madrid and Colectivo de Feministas Lesbianas de Madrid came together around 1976 to try to inject feminism into Marxist ideological left wing groups during the Spanish transition period because, at that time, these groups were continuing to ignore the class struggles of women in a continuation of their sexism from the Second Republic and Franco periods. Through their efforts to raise feminist awareness inside these groups, they also helped facilitate the development of feminist thought among women militating inside them.[6]
Unión de Juventudes Comunistas de España had started integrating policies around sexuality by 1981.
Socialist government of Felipe González (1982 – 1996)
When PCE finally started supporting homosexual rights in the transition period and during the 1980s, most of their homosexual rights militants tended to be male.
Izquierda Unida had integrated lesbian and gay rights into their electoral program by 1986. This integration of lesbian and gay rights into their joint electoral program with Partido Comunista de España would stay, well past the end of the González government. They were the first major party to put forward such a program.
Gay and lesbian political platforms for PCE/IU and PSOE for 1986 to 1996 elections
| Elections | Partido Comunista de España / Izquierda Unida | PSOE |
| 1986 | – Social and cultural normalization. – Repeal of Article 9.20 of the Disciplinary Regime of the Armed Forces and elimination of homosexuality as a cause of exclusion and expulsion from military service. – Destruction of the police files. – Adoption rights. | – n/a |
| 1989 | – Social and cultural normalization. – Anti-discrimination law. – LGBT protections in the workplace – Protection of Social Security rights. – Prevention of discriminatory behavior in government administration. | – n/a |
| 1993 | – Education for the respect of sexual differences. – Limitation of the use of police files. – Criminal protection. – Equalization of treatment between same-sex and opposite-sex couples. | – n/a |
| 1996 | – Creation of a registry of unmarried couples. – Creating a law that would treat same-sex and opposite-sex couples the same. – Free access to artificial insemination. – Comprehensive sex education plan and review of the educational plans. – Awareness campaigns. – Support for LGBT associations. – Creation of a parliamentary committee on LGBT rights. | – Support for a law legalizing Civil Unions |
The AIDS epidemic had gotten underway in Spain in 1981, only a few months after the virus was discovered in the United States. It was quickly associated with homosexuality. PCE and its youth organizations largely seemed quiet on this issue, not discussing it much and not releasing many statements related to World AIDS Day. This trend of ignoring one of the biggest health crises for gay men continued into the 2020s, with the term SIDA never being mentioned on their Twitter profile.
Pride again convened by CFLM in 1986 with Grupo Anti-SIDA as a co-convener. The representative for the march said in the ten years since Spain had become a democracy, very little had been to improve the lives of lesbians and gays. The march denounced the discrimination suffered by homosexuals serving in the military.[7] Timed with Pride in June 1986, Partido Comunista de España celebrated the Jornadas sobre la cuestión homosexual, an event organized by Comisión Gay and the Área de Movimientos Sociales del Comité Central.[8]
Conservative government of José Maria Aznar (1996 – 2004)
The Aznar era would see a period of intense action by gay and lesbian activists seeking to expand their rights on a number of issues, including marriage equality, reproductive rights, pension rights and immigration rights. It would also see a more European based approach for political and legal status to expand rights not just inside Spain, but across the whole of the European Union. Many of these efforts would be led by lesbians from other countries. The period would also see Partido Comunista de España / Izquierda Unida and PSOE include gay and lesbian rights in their political platforms, with more complete plans to give full rights of citizenship as the period progressed.
Gay and lesbian political platforms for PCE/IU and PSOE for 1996 to 2004 elections
| Elections | Partido Comunista de España / Izquierda Unida | PSOE |
| 1996 | – Creation of a registry of unmarried couples. – Creating a law that would treat same-sex and opposite-sex couples the same. – Free access to artificial insemination. – Comprehensive sex education plan and review of the educational plans. – Awareness campaigns. – Support for LGBT associations. – Creation of a parliamentary committee on LGBT rights. | – Support for a law legalizing Civil Unions |
| 2000 | – Creation of civil registry for de facto couples. – Equalization of same-sex couples with opposite-sex couples. – Recognition of the right of de facto unions to joint adoption. | – Equalization of gay couples with heterosexuals. – Creation of an observatory for equal opportunities for gays and lesbians. |
| 2004 | – Right to marriage between people of the same sex. – Law of Civil Unions that equates them totally to marriages. – Sexual Identity Law. – Review of Article 14 of the Spanish Constitution. – Awareness campaigns. – Right of asylum. – Sex education. – Modification of collective agreements. | – Right to marriage between people of the same sex. – Sexual Identity Law. – Law recognizing civil unions. – Equality policies in the labor market. – Social rights for de facto couples, both same and opposite sex couples. |
Elena de León as president of CRECUL and others from Partido Comunista de España (PCE), and Área de Libertad Afectivo-sexual de Izquierda Unida (ALEAS) presented draft legislation to the Congreso de Diputados and to regional legislatures the Proposal for Legal Equality of Domestic Partners with the right to joint adoption, including the right to be foster parents in legislation that was presented in 1996 by the Coalición Izquierda Unida. They also presented draft legislation law on legal equality of de facto couples regardless of their sexual orientation.
Socialist government of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (2004 – 2011)
The Zapatero era saw the decline in importance and visibility of the PCE within a homosexual rights framework in Spain. Communist organizations were still active, but had les visibility and less importance, largely displaced by Izquiera Unida.
The Ayuntamiento de Badajoz helped celebrate Orgullo 2009 Badajoz with a concentration on 27 June organized by Foro Extremeño por la diversidad afectivo sexual at plaza de San Andrés. The event was subsidized by Consejería de Cultura and Turismo de la Junta de Extremadura. Associations participating in the event included Mujeres Progresistas, Mujeres Jóvenes, Malvaluna, Amnistía Internacional, Asociación de Derechos Humanos de Extremadura, CCOO Extremadura, UGT Extremadura, PSOE Extremadura, IU Extremadura, Juventudes Socialistas, Juventudes Comunistas, Los Verdes de Extremadura, Alternativa Joven, Asociación Tremn, El Arrabal Oriental, Extremadura.com, Cáceres Laico, Centro de Ocio Contemporáneo, Comité Extremeño contra el Racismo, la Xenofobia y la Intolerancia, Consejo de la Juventud de Extremadura, FanCineGay, EraseUnaVez.com, la Federación Estatal de Lesbianas Gays, Bisexuales y Transexuales y Fundación Triángulo.
Conservative government of Mariano Rajoy (2011 – 2018)
It is against the historical backdrop of supporting traditional gender norms and largely supporting male homosexuals instead of all homosexuals that Juventudes Comunista‘s Pride statements in the period between 2011 and 2021 should be examined from a lesbian perspective. In this period, lesbians were mentioned in 2011, 2014 and 2019. One of these mentions only referred to lesbians and their class-based demands from a reproductive perspective even as such a reproductive perspective was not used in their assessment of gay men or transsexuals and transgender people.
In 2014, Junventudes Comunista in their Pride statement reduced lesbian and bisecual women political demands to being a mother. Trans were allowed political demands not around motherhood and reproductive rights.
Junventudes Comunista published a manifesto for Pride in 2015. The only class they mentioned using their name was trans. Instead, bolleras and maricas to mention lesbians and gays, and the term transmaricabibollo to describe their feminism that included all members of the collective.
Despite Junventudes Comunista having an image for their Pride statement in 2016 including both the male and female symbols, neither sex were mentioned nor were any specific class inside the collective individually named. The shooting in Orlando, Florida was mentioned as “50 LGTBI people brutally murdered” despite no evidence that intersexed people being killed or targeted by the shooter.
Juventud Comunista published their Pride manifesto in 2017. The only member of the collective they mentioned by name was gay, which was followed the word collective and used as shorthand for LGTB. A year or two later, the same organization complained about how Pride was represented by gays, making lesbians, transwomen and intersexed people invisible. Women were mentioned thrice in the statement and men once. One mention to men and women was to complain about the binary system where people are classified as men and women. Their separate in condemnation of WorldPride activities in Madrid mentioned how organizers made Madrid gay friendly but hid the fight for rights by members of the LGTBI collective. Juventud Comunista did not make those rights any more visible by articulating them, including lesbian specific ones.
Socialist government of Pedro Sánchez (2018 – 2023)
With issues related to the pandemic not being mentioned, Juventud Comunista published their Pride manifesto in 2020. Only one half of a member of the five members of the collective were worth mentioning by name in their statement and that was transwomen.
In more recent times, PCE has aligned itself with queer politics in Spain, demanding support for gender self-ID laws, and supporting International Women’s Day marches that explicitly called for additional rights for penis havers to access women’s spaces. At the same time, they also condemned the practice of womb rental and child selling.
Works Cited
Canet, V. (2017, August 8). Dolors Majoral: «Separatist lesbianism aims to find our own models as lesbians». dos manzanas. Retrieved from https://www.dosmanzanas.com/2017/08/dolors-majoral-el-lesbianismo-separatista-pretende-buscar-nuestros-propios-modelos-como-lesbianas.html
de la Cruz, L. (2021, June 27). “¡Qué ‘demasiao’, todos los peligrosos nos hemos ‘juntao’!”: la primera manifestación del Orgullo en Madrid. ElDiaro.Es. Retrieved from https://www.eldiario.es/madrid/somos/historia/demasiao-peligrosos-hemos-juntao-primera-manifestacion-orgullo-madrid_1_8072341.html
El País. (1986, June 24). Homosexuales y lesbianas celebran el Día del Orgullo Gay. El País. Retrieved from El País: https://elpais.com/diario/1986/06/24/sociedad/519948010_850215.html
Goicoechea Gaona, M. Á., Clavo Sebastián, M. J., & Álvarez Terán, R. (2019, June). Feminismo y derechos para las mujeres homosexuales. Feminismo, 297-322. doi:: 10.14198/fem.2019.33.12
Partido Comunista de España Juventudes Comunista. (2019, June 16). ¡Basta de mentiras! Siempre a la vanguardia por los derechos del colectivo LGTBI. Retrieved from Partido Comunista de España Juventudes Comunista: https://www.juventudes.org/basta-de-mentiras-siempre-a-la-vanguardia-por-los-derechos-del-colectivo-lgtbi/
Suárez Suárez, M. C. (2012). El feminismo asturiano en la oposición al Franquismo y en la Transición democrática. Vivencias, conciencia y acción política . Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo.
[1] Invalid source specified.
[2] (Suárez Suárez, 2012)
[3] (Suárez Suárez, 2012)
[4] (Partido Comunista de España Juventudes Comunista, 2019)
[5] (de la Cruz, 2021)
[6] (Canet, 2017)
[7] (El País, 1986)
[8] Invalid source specified.
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