The coincidence of the celebration yesterday, June 28, of International LGBTIQ Pride Day, conceived to claim the rights of this group and fight against discrimination and violence against it, with the first steps of a Valencian parliament and city councils in which it has Vox gained prominence, have led to the observation of what each other does and says with particular attention this year.
The ultra-conservative formation has repeatedly expressed its rejection of the celebration and the parades and demonstrations that Pride entails, and upon reaching its first mayoralty in the Community, in Náquera, a population of less than eight thousand inhabitants, it has acted accordingly denying the possibility of hanging the rainbow flag in the Town Hall.
In some municipalities, such as Elx, where it has become part of the government, its councilors avoided participating in the matter. The popular mayor, Pablo Ruz, also did not participate in the display of the rainbow flag, placed on a side balcony, who alleged agenda reasons, but other members of his government team did.
Located in the eye of the hurricane, the PP made efforts to limit the scope of the controversy by multiplying its demonstrations of support for the day. Carlos Mazón did it with an expressive tweet to which he attached a large rainbow flag. By mid-afternoon yesterday, more than two hundred thousand people had seen it. In the act of homage to the recently promoted Eldense, he assured that “under no circumstances, ever” will there be any setback in LGTBI rights during his government. The Provincial Council that he still presides over wore the flag and the Provincial Palace was illuminated with rainbow colors “as we have always done,” he stressed.
The Ombudsman of the PPCV in Les Corts, Miguel Barrachina, affirmed that the LGTBI flag “represents” them and added: “Where we govern, we put it”, referring to the municipalities of Valencia and Castelló, and other cities such as Benidorm and Torrevieja, where the rainbow banner was present in one way or another.
“Today the Castelló City Council displays the rainbow flag, and the one in Valencia on Saturday was illuminated with the multicolored light that represents the LGTBI collective and I felt happy and represented,” the “popular” spokesperson told the media. In Alicante, which celebrates the parade on July 15, the mayor Luis Barcala, also from the PP, declared that there will be “no controversy, we do not hang a flag, but a banner and the forecast will continue the same, like every year.
Asked about the gesture of the PSPV and Compromís to place the multicolored banner in the offices of their parliamentary groups, Barrachina said that it seems “phenomenal” to him. “The Popular Party is about putting up flags, not taking them down,” he said. “We believe that we should always put it on and not now because we are in the campaign. We have always put it on.”
Indeed, PSPV and Compromís hung the LGTBI flag in the windows of their offices in the Les Corts parliamentary group building, with the aim of reaffirming their commitment to the rights of the collective. Last Friday, a rainbow flag was hung on the main façade of Les Corts, after which Compromís asked yesterday Tuesday that it be reinstalled to commemorate Pride Day.
“Faced with those who try to sabotage the rights of LGTBi people, we will always continue to defend the right to love whoever you want,” the Socialists also claimed on Twitter, who denounced that “the presidency of Les Corts -Llanos Massó (Vox)- has rejected hang the flag on the façade” of the regional parliament, something that the Compromís deputy Joan Baldoví also pointed out.
As in other institutions, from the Diputación de Valencia, an explicit call was made to “continue advancing” in equality and the rights of the LGTBI collective, with the commitment to “defend all these achievements against any type of setback from other administrations”. .
The institutional manifesto warns of the “growing threat” of LGTBIphobia, and makes an explicit call to “continue advancing in the coming years in equality and the rights of the LGTBI collective”, with the commitment to “defend all these achievements against any type of setback from other administrations”.
In addition, the regional government is asked for “the guarantee that the progress achieved so far will be maintained”, as well as “the dialogue with the LGTBI movement”. It is also considered necessary to implement “a state pact against hate speech.”
The representatives of Lambda, the LGTBI collective for sexual, gender and family diversity, thanked the president Toni Gaspar and Dolors Gimeno, deputy in charge of the Diversity area, for the work carried out “all these years to support and defend all the people who make up said community”. Lambda is the entity that convenes and organizes the pride demonstration in Valencia, which on this occasion will have the motto ‘Pride for all, rights for all’.
