BarcelonaThe thousands of demonstrators in favor of LGBTI rights who marched through the center of Barcelona this Saturday took advantage of the attention on the occasion of Pride Day to send four strong messages. The first, which they do not want to be used by Israel, presented as the most open Middle Eastern country with gender diversity, as “justification of genocide” against the population of Palestine. The second, that it is an urgent need to be able to “face” the ecological crisis caused by climate change and the social crisis caused by the problems of access to housing. The third, that the rise of the extreme right is translating into an increase in attacks on the collective that often go “unpunished”. And, fourthly, that the approval of a trans-Catalan law, paralyzed by the call for new elections, is essential to protect the rights of this group, often migrants.
“Not in our name”, said the spokesperson of the LGBTI Call, Ángel Camacho, after stating that Israel “uses the group illegitimately to clean its image and justify the genocide” in Gaza. Camacho has rejected the “racist, colonial and apartheid” policy of Israel. In fact, during the march, proclamations to this effect predominated and Palestinian flags could be seen. The demonstration has gathered 2,000 people according to the City Council, 10,000 according to the organizers.
This is the 48th time that the demonstration in defense of LGTBI rights has taken to the streets of Barcelona, said Camacho, who assured that the LGTBI Call is the “successor” of the first historic demonstration of the Gay Liberation Front of Catalonia (FAGC ) in 1977. In this sense, the demonstrators have demanded the urgent approval of a trans-Catalan law, since the Spanish regulations “do not really guarantee the rights of the collective”, and demand an end to the “cuts in the ‘health field’ that will lead to the ‘closing of 13 of the 14 clinics’ for the control of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Against Pride and America’s Cup
This Saturday’s march has united several struggles. The demonstrators have also opposed a territorial model based on “macro projects”, large infrastructures, casinos, the destruction of farming and the generation of precarious jobs. In this sense, they have rejected an economic model based on tourism and macro-events such as the Copa América de Vela and, as usual, they have distanced themselves from Pride (which is celebrated on July 20), since they consider it a “ commercial parade of pink capitalism” and not an activist movement. According to Camacho, it is driven by real estate, nightlife or hotel companies, who “just want to do business”. “They are the companies that are evicting us, that are raising the rents in Barcelona, and they are complicit in the genocide in Palestine,” he added.
Among the seventy organizations that have joined the event are the Coalition Sufficiently Complicit with Israel, the Palestinian Community of Catalonia, the Tenants’ Union, Ecologistes en Acció, the CGT, the Intersindical, Futuro Vegetal and No Copa America Entities and movements such as the Catalan Association of Asexuals, DisturBi Col·lectiu, the Drag Association and Esquerra Independentista, among others, have also participated in this afternoon’s mobilization. “As in previous editions, the LGBTI struggle is considered to be a struggle for the whole of society, and that is why we work with the set of social and collective movements that work for dignified lives in areas such as trade unionism, the movement for housing or environmentalism”, said Crida in a statement.
2024-06-29 19:50:54
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