Justicia gets its name from being the historical seat of justic in Madrid, with the headquarters of the Tribunal Supremo and Tribunal de Cuentas both located in the barrio. For lesbian life, and specifically translesbian friendly lesbian life, the barrio is an epicenter as it is the home of the gay barrio, Chueca. In contrast, anti Patriarcado feminist lesbians and gender critical lesbians have tended to congregate more in Lavapies.
Women
Mili Hernández García is an activist, founder of Berkana, and the first lesbian to join Coordinadora de Frentes de Liberación Homosexual del Estado Español.
Hernández was born in Madrid in 1959. She moved to London in 1980, living there and the United States during the next six years where she visited pioneering LGBT bookstores in London and New York. In 1986, she joined Coordinadora de Frentes de Liberación Homosexual del Estado Español, the first lesbian to join the organization that went on to become COGAM. She founded Berkana in 1993, becoming the first LGBT bookstore in Spain and Latin America. It was originally situated on Calle de la Palma , moving a year later to Plaza de Chueca at a time when the neighborhood was run down and drug infested. She was one of the first people to put LGBT reference materials in the window of a shop. In 1995, she founded Editorial Egales, an LGBT themed publishing house. She also designed the first gay map of Chueca, a map that featured 20 LGBT friendly places that existed in 1995. In 2019, she published her first novel, a children’s story called Federico y sus familia. These activities have made her one of the most influential contemporary lesbians in Spain.
See
Lyceum Club Femenino is the Madrid branch of an enlightenment period cultural circle of women first created in London in 1904. The Madrid branch opened in 1926. It was founded by several women. Its membership included a number of women who were lesbians including Victorina Durán Cebrian, María de Maeztu, Victoria Kent and Elena Fortún. The Club also hosted a number of art exhibitions, including one by Marisa Roesset Velasco who was not a member. The Lyceum officially closed in 1939 when Franco came to power in Madrid. It was officially replaced by the Club Medina, which was part of the Francoist Sección Femenina. The original Lyceum Club Femenino continued its activities in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, though they did so clandestinely to avoid government repression. Their activities continued to support women’s education and feminist ideals. A commemorative plaque is attached to the building where the Lyceum once was at the intersection of Plaza del Rey and Calle del Barquillo.
Asociación para la Enseñanza de la Mujer, originally located at Calle de San Mateo, 15, was a school of higher education for women, created by a women’s rights advocate and progressive educator Fernando de Castro in 1870. Concepción Arenal, one of the most important feminists of the era, was involved with the school. It remained open until the Civil War, and then was converted to a neighborhood school before finally closing in 1954. Among those who attended was María Martínez Sierra, a feminist, writer, dramatist, translator and politician.
Convento de Santa María Magdalena, originally located at Calle de Hortaleza, 88, was the primary filming location for Pedro Almodóvar’s 1983 film Entre tinieblas, translated as Dark Habits in English. It was once a royal convent, but has since been converted into offices for the Unión General de Trabajadores. The film featured Julieta Serrano. The plot followed a nightclub singer who hid away in a convent filled with eccentric nuns after her boyfriend died as a result of a drug overdose. The film was revolutionary on a number of fronts in Spanish cinema; first because of its criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and second because of its willingness to break the mold for the type of women shown on the screen. Dark Habits premiered at the Venice Film Festival at an unofficial section on 9 September after having been rejected by the Cannes Film Festival for sacrilegious. It was not included in the official screenings at the Venice Film Festival because organizers considered it blasphemous and anti-Catholic. A year before Dark Habits, Almodóvar released Laberinto de pasiones. Taken together, for the LGB community, both films represent an important response to the previously oppressive nature of state-censorship and homosexual erasure that took place during the Franco period.
Colectivo Hetaira, historically located at Calle de Fuencarral, 18, is a Spanish non-profit dedicated to protecting the labor rights of prostitutes, combat gender violence, protect the immigration rights of trafficked women who were forced to engage in prostitution. It was founded on 12 March 1995 by Cristina Garaizabal and Mamen Briz. The organization dissolved on 10 December 2019. Among the lesbians involved in the organization was Colectivo de Feministas Lesbianas de Madrid cofounder Empar Pineda Erdozia. Another lesbian involved with the organization was Montse Oliván.
fanzine bollus vivendi was a magazine published in Madrid from 1999 to 2001. It represented one of the shifts for some lesbians, moving from lesbian feminist to queer feminism. It highlighted the conflict between the prosex versus abolitionist feminism in Madrid, pitting lesbians who support BDSM, prostitution and pornography against those who wanted that to be prohibited. It also represented the shift for lesbian queer feminists away from Lavapies to Chueca.
Chueca has historically been the gay neighborhood of Madrid, and was the base for much of the LGBT activism to come out of Spain. It is what Lavapies has been for lesbians and feminists in the city. Its borders are calle de Fernando VI on the north, Gran Vía on the south, calle del Barquillo on the east and calle de Hortaleza y Fuencarral on the west. Lesbians who have been closely affiliated with Chueca include Empar Pineda Erdozia, cofounders of Colectivo de Feministas Lesbianas de Madrid. She lived in the neighborhood, often moving from house to house to stay with friends. Another lesbian associated with the neighborhood was Montse Oliván.
Berkana was founded in 1993 by lesbian Mili Hernández García, becoming the first LGBT bookstore in Spain and Latin America. It was originally situated on Calle de la Palma , moving a year later to Plaza de Chueca at a time when the neighborhood was run down and drug infested. It moved to its current location at Calle Hortaleza, 64 on 5 December 2000. In the store’s early years, there were very few available titles and many members of Spain’s lesbian and gay community were scared to be seen going inside because of continued stigmatization of the homosexual community. It went on to become the largest and most influential LGBT bookstore in Spain.
Federación Estatal de Gays y Lesbianas (FEGL), located at Calle de las Infantas, 40, was founded by Colectivo de gai de Madrid (COGAM) and state level association for Comité Reivindicativo y Cultural de Lesbianas (CRECUL) in April 1992. CRECUL put forth a proposal at the time of its founding that contemplated two presidencies for the new organization, one for each of the sexes with CRECUL President María Elena de León Criadoand COGAM spokesperson Miguel Angel Sanchez Rodriguez to serve as the first two joint constituent presidents. The following year, Casal Lambda de Barcelona joined FELGTB, and the statues to the new organizations were amended with a third president being added, Armand de Fluvià. Miguel Ángel Sánchez and Elena de León became Secretarias Generales. Mid-1994, de León left FELGTB because of her feminist beliefs and was soon replaced by Mili Hernández. Hernández came from outside CRECUL, getting her position after founding grupo de mujeres de COGAM. She would later go on to become provisional president of FELGTB from 1997 until 2000 when she was replaced by Pedro González Zerolo. In the mid-1990s, the group was dominated by gay men, who took an institutionalist approach to homosexual liberation, seeking to use political processes to achieve their goals. They were also about denouncing homophobia, but social and legally enshrined forms of this type of discrimination. The Federación Estatal de Gays y Lesbianas (FEGL) changed their name in 2002 and put lesbians first to increase their visibility. At the same time, they also added the T for transexuals in their name. The name would change again in 2007, when they added the B for bisexuals.
Plastics were one of the mediums used by some lesbians in this the Felipe González period, with Cabello/Carceller being among the most prominent lesbian artists using this material. Cabello/Carceller used plastics to create art featuring the shape of female genitalia as part of their attempts to normalize women’s sexuality, and specifically lesbian women’s sexuality. Among their most important works in plastics were 1994’s “Ya no me importa tu mirada” and 1996’s “acércate, deséame, ámame, sí….pero cállate”. Cabello/Carceller are at Galería Elba Benítez on Calle de San Lorenzo, 11 in Madrid, and Galeria Joan Prats at Carrer de Balmes, 54 in Barcelona.
Asociación Feminista de Autodefensa Walkirias are a feminist self-defense group. They took their name from the Norse female mythological warriors, Valkyries. During the 1990s, they were located in an apartment on Calle del Barquillo. They were founded with the goal of teaching women how to protect themselves after a series of sexual assaults and rapes that had brought women to the streets to demand better protection. Lesbians were a majority of participants in the association. In 1992, the organization received a grant of 700,000 pesetas from the Instituto de Mujeres located inside the Ministerio de Asuntos Sociales. They worked with similar groups in France and Germany. During the late 1990s, a group of transwomen asked for a session for transwomen. The association said no, because their focus was on assisting women who had been born girls. This created a conflict with transgender groups that they were not prepared for. The Insituto de Mujeres though stood with them, and they learned to grow both as lesbians and feminists.
Colectivo de Feministas Lesbianas de Madrid (CFLM) were one of the major lesbian groups in Madrid in the 1990s. They were based on Calle Barquillo for a while in the early 1990s. The building they were based in was used by a number of local feminist groups. The moved to a new building in a different location in 1996.
The Contencioso-Administrativo del TSJ de Madrid, located at Calle del General Castaños, 1, ruled that Mutualidad General de Funcionarios Civiles del Estado (MUFACE), located at Calle de Modesto Lafuente, needed to pay a single woman from Madrid €597 to cover the costs of medications that had been rejected from public funding because she was single. The judicial ruling implied similar findings should be possible based on sexual orientation.
Griffin’s, originally located at C. del Marqués de Valdeiglesias, 6, 28013, was a gay and lesbian discoteca that first opened on 27 May 1982, and was the most important LGB club outside Chueca. During the 1980s and 1990s, it was the discotecta for gay men and some lesbians, when being gay was still at times taboo. It hosted transvestite shows, one of the first and most important clubs in the city having drag queen shows. It closed around March 2018.
calle de Barquillo, 44 has been the home of militant feminism in Madrid since the late 1970s. It has housed a number of militant organizations over the years and continued to do so up until the late 2000s. Among the militant feminists to meet there were lesbian feminists. In the late 1970s, militant feminists in Madrid at calle de Barquillo, 44, opposed the creation of specific groups of lesbians since they did not feel that sexual orientation was a legitimate element to base an organization on. Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Mujeres para la Participación y la Igualdad still had their offices in the building in 2021.
CRECUL (Comite de Culturas Lesbianas), located at Calle del Barquillo, 44 planta 2 Izda, is a historical association for lesbian and bisexual women focused on the sexual and reproductive rights of women and for lesbian visibility. They are both a national organization, along with a having regional branches like one in Madrid. The organization was founded in 1991 after a meeting of the European Lesbian Meeting as part of the ILIS meeting. The following year, they made a public presentation in support of a proposed law on de facto couples. They went on to produce a magazine called Informales, which had a national audience during the mid-1990s. A previous office was located at Calle Bravo Murillo, 4. CRECUL president Elena de León said in 2018 that lesbians were forgotten in official campaigns by the local government in Madrid during the AIDS epidemic as the only tool the Comunidad de Madrid subsidized to fight AIDS transmission was a condom and women having sex with women were never featured in any awareness campaigns.
Eat
Tal Fulanita, located at Regueros, Calle de Regueros, is an LGBTQI+ bar located in Chueca. It regularly hosts live music, and works with the regional and local government to promote these events. The bar is an international reference point for the LGBTQI+ community in the city, opening in 2004. It has some lesbian friendly shows, and can be a good place to take a date.
Pride
Spanish democratic transition (1975 – 1982)
1980 was the last time that the city’s Pride march would not be authorized until the COVID pandemic forced its cancelation again in 2020. For gays, lesbians and transsexuals in Chueca where many had been living on the margins, the march and surrounding activities were an important moment in beginning to define the barrio as theirs. Sources conflict as to the route used in 1980. One source says the route was only 150 meters long and went from Plaza de Santo Domingo to Puerta del Sol. [1] Another source says route went along Paseo de Rosales. Reports said that marchers were insulted by some spectators. Whatever the route, the major political issue of the year was anger over plans by UCD to reform the Codigo Penal in ways that would not fully decriminalize homosexuality.
Socialist government of Felipe González (1982 – 1996)
By the late-1980s, the rift between lesbians and gay men began to heal and the redevelopment of mixed homosexual spaces began to be reflected at Pride in this period, with participation rates of gay men slowly increasing later in the decade. Around this time, Pride made what was more or less a permanent move from Vallecas to Centro and Chueca with routes that started around Calle Pelayo and ended around Calle Fuencarral; the main march would stay in Centro and other events were organized by smaller groups or as supplemental events for those living in other districts on the periphery. [2]
COGAM was formally established in 1988 after emerging as an idea following a seminar in Chueca in 1986. COGAM and CFLM decided to organize a joint celebration of Pride in Madrid in 1988, intending the partnership to be a one-off collaboration but one that in actuality would continue for a couple more years. Within a few years, COGAM took over management of Pride in Madrid.
Chueca began to play an increasingly important role in Pride starting in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With marches now taking place in Centro near Sol and Gran Vía, people slipped into Chueca after Pride marches where they flooded local bars and clubs. By the mid-1990s, businesspeople in Chueca started organizing festive events to coincide with the march. [3]
Pride in the late 1980s and early 1990s period was not without potential safety concerns. Marches in Centro in rarely saw traffic cut off for whole streets like Calle de Alcalá. Sometimes, the local government just cut off the bus lane for use by marchers and the buses overtook protesters. After these marches, some people opted to go to Parque Retiro instead of Chueca to relax.[4]
Splits in the feminist community were not always translated over to Pride in the early 1990s. Feminist groups like CS Seco de Pacífico and Grupo de Mujeres Doble X mobilized to support Pride in Madrid in the early 1990s despite their opposition to institutional feminism based around Calle de Barquillo.
Participation rates in Pride on 28 June 1994 was similar to the previous year, with between five hundred and one thousand people taking part in a route that started in Plaza de Tirso Molina and again ended in Puerta del Sol. Among those participating in the 1994 march were COGAM, CFLM, Radical Gay, Asamblea de mujeres de la complutense and LSD. Following the march, people flocked to Chueca for an impromptu party. [5]
Conservative government of José Maria Aznar (1996 – 2004)
Estimates for the number of people participating in Pride in 1997 vary dramatically, from three thousand to four thousand to five thousand to ten thousand people. It was also the first time Pride had a mascot, and commercially sponsored floats grew in number. Their presence was viewed as a victory by COGAM and businesspeople in Chueca, as it meant that Pride had managed to successfully grow from beyond its original core base of lesbian and gay militants. [6]
Alaska did her first concert at Pride in 1999 on the corner of Calle Augusto Figueroa and Pelayo as part of broader Pride celebrations organized by AEGAL. It was a free and attracted a lot of people, making it challenging for her in the future to repeat a street performance.[7]
Chueca and its relationship with Pride was also changing during the early 2000s. As a result of the mass influx of people pouring into the area to celebrate in the period around Pride, streets were often pedestrianized. COGAM, who were getting subsidies from the local government to assist with the costs of organizing Pride, had started working with the townhall of Madrid to issue permits for parties in the area during Pride Week.
Adjacent activities to the main event at Pride in 2000 included children’s parties, a film series, contests, concerts and festivals. Comisión 28 de junio, which was the integration of 15 homosexual collectives and 7 business associations in Chueca, organized the adjacent festivities. Institutional representatives of the local government and politicians were headquartered during the event on Calle Fuencarral, with the event having become important enough for them to need a location to coordinate their Pride messaging from.
Chueca again played an important role in Pride in 2000, with COGAM organizing a number of activities ending on 2 July 2000 in the neighborhood. Organizers went into the event optimistic about the potential economic impact of the event, believing that fifty to sixty thousand people would travel to the city from across Spain to participate. Organizers had hoped to run events in more locations across the city, but the Partido Popular run Junta Municipal de Centro banned Orgullo celebrations from taking place on Calles Augusto Figueroa, Pérez Galdós, Libertad, Infantas, San Marcos and Plaza de Vázquez de Mella[8], saying it would have too much of an effect on traffic and local residents. Organizers were informed of the ban on 23 June, only a few days before Pride Week was scheduled to start.
Socialist government of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (2004 – 2011)
Politicians, many of them from the Government, and unions such as Carmen Calvo, Leire Pajín, the general coordinator of Izquierda Unida Gaspar Llamazares, PSOE Secretary General José Blanco, PSOE Madrid Secretary General Rafael Simancas, and the secretaries of Social Movements of the PSOE and IU, Pedro Zerolo and David Chica all participated in the 2005 march.
Pride in 2007 officially got underway with the reading of a proclamation by singer Marta Sánchez on 27 June at Plaza de Chueca. After that, there was a tribute video to the first homosexuals and transsexuals who participated in the first march in Barcelona in 1977. The rest of the officially organized socio-cultural activities getting underway a week later. Zero magazine provided free Wi-Fi across Chueca during Pride 2007.
More than 250,000 people arrived in Chueca specifically to attend the adjacent activities in the period immediately before and after the parade. The aftereffects of EuroPride would change the neighborhood again, making it a gay tourism Mecca and pushing up local rents as even more single and coupled gay men moved in.[9]
A cultural program called Muestra T was launched during Pride 2007, which included cultural programming at various closed establishments like bars, shops and hairdressers around Chueca.
The proclamation for 2008 Pride was once again presented at Plaza de Chueca, read by presenter Eva Hache and the actor Hugo Silva. Neither of them have come out publicly as homosexuals, lesbian or gay respectively, or as bisexual during a celebration of lesbian visibility. Both people have left their sexual orientation be ambiguous in the media.
El Festival Visible, in its fourth year in 2008, took place from 10 June to 20 July. A lesbian themed exhibition titled Evasinadanes en el paraíso de la visibilidad took place at Librería Berkana from 12 June to 20 July.
The major centers for activity for official celebrations at Pride 2008 were Calle Pelayo, Plaza de Chueca, Calle de San Bartolomé, Calle de las Infantas, Costanilla de Capuchinos, Plaza del Rey and Plaza Vázquez de Mella.
Muestra-T festival was held in Plaza del Rey in 2008. The first night had a theme of Flamenco pride, with the second night featuring creative women, and the third night titled “Noche RE-movida”. The last night was, “Noche brasileña”.
Mayka Contreras, a lesbian, was the president of AEGAL from at least 2009 to 2013. By this point, AEGAL, an LGTB business networking organization in Chueca, was playing a major role in actually organizing all the activities around Pride with the exception of the actual march itself under the name MADO.
MADO organized six centers for entertainment during Pride in 2009. They were located at Calles Pelayo and Calle de Libertad, Plaza de Chueca, Plaza de Vázquez de Mella, Plaza del Rey and Plaza de Soledad Torres Acosta. [10]
LesMadrid 2009 took place in in collaboration with MUESTRA-T. It included a 7-a-side football tournament sponsored Filanita de Tal, with 21 teams and 400 female footballers taking place. The semi-final matches were 27 and 28 June at Green Canal with the final played on 4 July. There was padel championship also run by Fulanita de Tal. BOLLOLOGOS x FULANITA, monologues with a lesbian theme, took place from 1 to 5 July at Plaza del Rey. The Social Pride Project took place, on display at Círculo de Bellas Artes. Artistic coordination was done by Veronica del Hoyo Colino. Femme Fatale took place at Los Placeres de Lola. A party was held at Circulo de Bellas Artes with djs Moni-k and DJ Lara.
El Festival Internacional de cine Gay y Lesbico, LESGAICINEMAD, organized by Muestra T included the film Gyna, which was lesbian themed in 2009. The movie told the story of a Czech refugee who comes into the lives of a poverty-weary lesbian couple in Scotland on the brink of collapse. Films were shown at Sala Manuel de Falla edificio SGAE located on Calle de Fernando VI, 4.
FELGTB published a Pride manifesto in 2009. It made one mention of gays and two about trans. There were no other LGTB or sex specific class mentions. The following year, their Pride manifesto made one mention about lesbians and three about trans people. FELGTB‘s 2011 Pride manifesto made one reference to gay men, two references to lesbians, one about bisexuals and one about transpeople. It also had one sex class specific reference to men. The following year, their Pride manifesto made three class specific references each about gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people.
People affiliated with Critical Pride also interupted the MADO Pride inauguration in 2010 by Plaza de Chueca that read “Our rights are not a business” and releasing pamphlets critical of Pride from a balcony.
Conflict with the local government ahead of Pride happened again in 2011. Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon decided to prohibit some of the musical events that had been planned for Pride 2011 in Chueca because of noise and potential security issues. Concerts were prohibited from 29 June to 3 July and events could have a noise limit of 90 decibels only after 11 PM. [11] On 14 June 2011, some neighbors in Chueca organized a cacerolada at Plaza de Chueca using Facebook to protest the decision to limit those musical activities. It was attended by 200 people, who said they disagreed with neighbors who had made the complaint about noise and security to the town hall. They said the decision to place those limits was purely homophobic.[12]
Conservative government of Mariano Rajoy (2011 – 2018)
There were nineteen floats at the 2012 Pride march in Madrid. Organizations that had floats included AEGAL, GALEHI, PSOE, Madrid Positivo, Fulanita de Tal, 100 Lesbianas Visibles, Gaygaxy, Locruagay.com, Shangay, Certamen MR. Gay Pride España, Me Da Igual and Concejalía de Igualdad del Ayuntamiento de Montesclaro.
The Dirección General de Control Ambiental, Transportes y Aparcamientos del Área de Gobierno de Medio Ambiente, Seguridad y Movilidad fined the organizers of Pride 2012, AGEL, COGAM and FELGTB, €42000 for noise violations in Chueca. The fine was for three very serious noise infractions and one minor noise infraction.[13]
COGAM President Esperanza Montero, AEGAL General Secretary Juan Carlos Alonso and FELGTB Youth Coordinator Santi Rivero spoke during the ceremony opening Pride 2013 at Plaza de Chueca. The manifesto was read by presenter Santiago Redondo.
A tribute party to Sara Montiel took place at Fulanita de Tal, located at Calle Conde de Xiquena, 2, on 2 July 2013 as part of LesMadrid’s 2013 Pride programming. It coincided with a tribute by the Academia de Cine in her memory. The party included singer Maria Ordoñez covering some of Montiel’s songs. “Remember Party” took place at Fulanita de Tal on 3 July 2013 as part of LesMadrid’s official 2013 Pride programming. It featured famous songs from previous Pride celebrations being mixed by Dj Maria. On 6 July 2013, Fulanita de Tal hosted “Merea Naranja”. Attendees were encouraged to come addressed in orange, and participate in shots of alcohol and a raffle. There was live music by Dj Maria. Fulanita de Tal hosted on 7 July an event called, “La Fulanita Dominguera” which included tavern prices for drinks, live music, cañitas of beer and snacks.
The Jornadas de Autoproteccion y Defensa Personal Femenina took place at Plaza de Chueca on 4 July as part of the LesMadrid’s 2013 official Pride programming. It was designed for people of the female “gender”[14] to learn the most direct and effective forms of self-protection through the use of everyday objects like clothes, high heeled shoes, bags and umbrellas.
“Womania” was an event at Fulanita VIP Club, located at Calle de Pelayo, 82, on 4 July 2013 that was part of LesMadrid’s 2013 Pride programing. It included a performance by Chiky Marti Womanity Girls and music by a couple of djs including ChosPincha, Fulanita Dj, Kiko Deejay and Afrah Vocal. ‘Fin de Fiesta Les Party con Relaciones’ was hosted by Fulanita VIP Club on 6 July and featured live musical performances by Maria Ordoñezm Violin Proyecciones, Djs Indie Tulapones, ChosPincha Djs House KikoDeejay and Silvia Sanchez. On 5 July, the club hosted a party and presentation of the series Muñecas, starring Djs Indie Tlasti-k, Dj Gorr Djs House Alex Dj, Nacho Lopez and Fulanita Dj.
Escape, a bar located at Calle de Gravina, 13, hosted “Atame” on 4 July 2013 with gifts of bracelets, shots of liquor and other surprises for attendees. The event was part of LesMadrid’s 2013 Pride programming. On 5 July 2013, Escape hosted the “Rainbow Party” with gogos, presents, shots and surprises. Escape hosted the “Almost Naked Party” on 6 July, with women showing up in bikinis.
Fiesta Vox, held on 4 July 2013, was a party at Fulanita de Tal at Calle de Conde de Xiquena, 2 with music NosoyDj. People attending were invited to have a “chupito de VOX”. The party was part of LesMadrid’s 2013 Pride programming.
Truco, located at Calle de Gravina, 10, hosted a white party on 5 July 2013 as part of LesMadrid’s Pride programming that year. Truco hosted the “Fiesta del Semáforo” on 6 July.
Plaza del Rey hosted the award ceremony for the 7th annual Fulanita de Tal football tournament on 7 July 2013 as part of the official LesMadrid pride programming. The top three teams were given trophies, and the top goal scorer of the tournament was also given a trophy. There was also a performance by Maria Ordoñez from her theatrical series, “Relaciones” as part of the ceremony.
Orgullo Crítico had banners hanging from balconies at Plaza de Chueca during 2013 MADO Pride festivities. One said, “No to pink capitalism” and another said “Pride is protest.”
CHRISHOM, located Calle de las Infantas, 40, published a Pride manifesto in 2013. It did not make any LGTB class specific references but did make three references about women and two about men.
Palacio de Longoria hosted a press conference by the organizers of Pride in late June 2014 about the celebrations that year. Boti G. Rodrigo, president of FELGTB, was absent as she was at Palacio del Pardo, attending a meeting with the President of Spain, Partido Popular’s Mariano Rajoy, along with other activists.
Área de Salud de FELGTB and the Coordinadora Estatal del VIH / SIDA, whose offices are located at Calle de Hortaleza, 48, 1, marched together at Pride in 2014, behind a banner that read: ‘Sanidad para tod@s: VIH, ITS, Hepatitis, Transexualidad, Reproducción Asistida…’
The outdoor stages for Pride in 2014 included ones at Callao, Plaza del Rey, the merger of Chueca and Calle Pelayo and the inclusion for the first time of one in Plaza de Colón.
Critical Pride took place again in 2014, with around five hundred marchers. Their march started in Plaza Antón Martín and ended at Plaza de Alonso Martínez, where a manifesto was read. The march traversed Calle Atocha, Plaza de Jacinto Benavente, Calle Carretas, Puerta del Sol, Calle Montera, Calle Fuencarral, Calle de Infantas, Calle de San Bartolomé, Calle Augusto Figueroa, Plaza de Chueca, Calle de Gravina and Calle de Hortaleza. Batukada Entiende were one of the conveners. [15]
Local town halls in across Spain made the gesture of creating rainbow pedestrian crossings in honor of Pride in June 2015. In Madrid, this was at Gran Via in Chueca during a year where such gestures by municipal governments faced large amounts of scrutiny after the Partido Popular national led government said town halls should not fly the rainbow flag for Pride as it does not apply to everyone.
FELGTBI+ published a Pride manifesto in 2017. This manifesto made only one reference to a specific LGTB or sex specific class, and it was three references to trans people.
Socialist government of Pedro Sánchez (2018 – 2023)
Malasaña, La Latina, Lavapiés and Madrid de Los Austrias were all hosting Pride festivities by 2018 in addition to those found in Chueca.
COGAM and FELGTBI+ published a joint Pride manifesto in 2018. It made a number of LGTB and sex specific class references, including one about lesbians, three about bisexuals, fourteen about transpeople, two about intersexed people, two about cis people, one about women and two about men. The following year, COGAM and FELGTBI+ again published a joint Pride manifesto, with one LGTB class specific mention about lesbians, two about bisexuals and ten about trans. There were no sex class specific references. COGAM and FELGTBI+ published a joint Pride manifesto in 2022. It made a number of LGTB and sex specific class references, including seven about trans, five about women and two about men.
CERMI (Comité Español de Representantes de Personas con Discapacidad), located Calle de Prim, 3, published an institutional statement in support of Pride in 2019. It mentioned lesbians and gay men as separate members of the collective zero times. It mentioned bisexuals and intersex as separate members of the collective once each, and it mentioned trans people five times.
The rainbow flag was banned from flying on the town hall building for Pride in 2020 as a result of a Supreme Court[16] ruling, with a compromise being reached of the flag being hung on the side of the street. The following year, the provided another compromised Ayuntamiento, agreeing to illuminate the building in the colors of the rainbow during Pride.
LesWorking ran a virtual Pride event on 27 June 2020 with a number of organizations taking part. Among those participating were Librería Berkana, and Colorful Families cofounder Marta Barrio.
Empresas por la Diversidad FELGTBI+ were the seventieth in the march order at the 2022 Pride parade, behind a banner reading, “Empresas por la Diversidad FELGTBI+.”
Unión de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de la ONCE de UGT‘s blog wrote a four page entry about Pride in 2021. It revisited the situation for members of the collective during the COVID pandemic. The blog, written by a man, did not mention the specific situation of lesbians at all, and only used the word lesbian once in a string alongside other members of the collective, “desde donde impulsa medidas para la protección de los derechos de lesbianas, gais, bisexuales y transexuales.” [17] Women as a class inside the collective also did not have their experiences described. In contrast, trans people were mentioned six individual times, examining their specific experiences as workers during the pandemic.
The floats for Pride 2022 left from Plaza de Carlos V at 20:30. There were thirty-nine in total listed on the official march order but news reports saying there were fifty-two. They were organized into four groups. The first group included COGAM, FELGTB, and RTVE. The second group included political parties. The third group had LGTB themed businesses and events. It included Shangay Orgullo de Pueblo, Cuatro de Libertad (Fulanita Fútbol) and Fulanita de Tal. The fourth group had businesses and international corporations, and included Santander’s Openbank,
During Pride celebrations in 2022 in Chueca, there was stickering that said, “Las lesbianas no temenos pene”. [18]
[1] (Santaeulalia, 2011)
[2] (Fernández I. , 2018)
[3] (Santaeulalia, 2011)
[4] (García Dauder, 2019)
[5] (Berzal de Miguel, 2020; moscas de colores, 2014; Sainz, 2018)
[6] (Berzal de Miguel, 2020; moscas de colores, 2014; García J. , 2020)
[7] (del Pozo, 2017)
[8] This plaza has subsequently been renamed Plaza de Pedro Zerolo, in honor of the gay homosexual rights campaigner who helped change the law to make same-sex marriage legal in Spain.
[9] (A.S., 2019)
[10] (Santaeulalia, 2011)
[11] (rioja2, 2011)
[12] (rioja2, 2011)
[13] (Europa Press, 2012)
[14] The organizers used the Spanish word for gender, rather than just saying women or sex. “Programa diseñado para el genero femenino que irá revelando las formas mas directas y eficaces de autoprotección.” This distinction is important as it shows the transinclusive nature of LesMadrid’s programming.
[15] (Enguix Grau, “Nos defilamos, nos manifestamos”: Activismis y manifestaciones LGTB en España, 2017)
[16] The Spanish name is Tribunal Supremo, and the courthouse is located at Calle del Marqués de la Ensenada, 1.
[17] English: “from where is promoted measures for the protection of the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals”
[18] (LGB Madrid, 2022)
España Sáfica 