Thousands of people responded to the call from Pride Barcelona and the Platform LGTBIcat and attended the demonstration on Thursday evening in Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia. Filling almost three Eixample blocks, the many who came together expressed their very clear feelings about LGBTI-phobia and the assaults that have taken place in recent weeks and concluded: "Zero tolerance."
The rally was attended by several Catalan government ministers, including enterprise and labour minister Roger Torrent, feminism and equality minister Tània Verge, interior minister Joan Ignasi Elena, and foreign minister Victòria Alsina. MPs from across the Catalan Parliament were present, including deputies from ERC, Junts, the PSC, the Comuns and Ciudadanos.
Carlos Marzá
The hundreds of protesters waved all sorts of flags representing LGTBI and trans as well as estelada versions of the movement. Also seen were the emblems of union groups CCOO and UGT, and banners with slogans against homophobia, against the police and references to the recent murder of Samuel Luiz in A Coruña: "'Maricón' must not be the last thing you hear when you die."
Carlos Baglietto
As there were no speeches or final action envisaged by the organizers, the Furia Trans Autònoma collective took the initiative and burst into the protest. First they read a statement in which they accused Pride of denying many of the realities of the LGBTIQ + movement, and then they moved the masses further downtown to Plaça Catalunya.
Carlos Baglietto
The march started by the trans platform then continued down the Rambla to the Colom monument shouting "Menos Borbones y más maricones" - that is, fewer Bourbons [Spanish royal family], more queers.
In front of the monument, some shouted out that they had had their mobile phones stolen. "They steal our Pride and then our cell phones," a protester shouted ironically. Another manifesto was then read against Pride and also against Spanish genocide in the Americas.
As the organizers from the platform announced the conclusion of the rally, a homophobe passing through the area on a scooter expressed his disdain for the protest. He received insults and pushes until he was expelled from the crowd, without it going any further. “You should be ashamed!” he shouted as he left.
Series of assaults
The demonstration was a response to the wave of homophobic assaults that have taken place in recent weeks in various parts of Spain, with the case of the young man murdered in A Coruña as the attack that has caused the most social and media impact.
In Catalonia, on June 5th, a man was assaulted on Passeig de Santa Madrona - near the bottom of the Rambla - by a group of street thieves who are said to select their victims based on their apparent sexual orientation. While one of the aggressors grabbed the victim by the neck, the other punched him twice in the face until he fell to the ground and, once on the ground, continued to attack him at the same time as shouting homophobic insults.
Carlos Baglietto
On June 26th, a young man from the Barcelona satellite town of Sant Cugat, reported that a group of teenagers left him unconscious after beating him and shouting "Maricón" at him. On the same day, a 52-year-old man was assaulted by a group of ten young people who kicked and punched him while uttering homophobic insults at a viewpoint in the Park Güell area.
The latest episode took place on July 9th, when three young people aged 22, 21 and 20 were assaulted and insulted in Carrer del Foc, in the Zona Franca of the Catalan capital, also for their sexual orientation.
Main image, demonstration against LGBTI-phobia in Barcelona / Carlos Baglietto