VivirLatino

Spain celebrates Pride

15:04 H | Topics: Events - GLBT - Spain

Spain, the third country in Europe to allow for gay marriage is celebrating Pride 2006 today with something to be proud of: equality. Has much changed with the new law? Well, it seems at least some things are different on the one year anniversary of Spain's marriage law: rainbow flags are flying alongside Spanish flags at government buildings.

...in Barcelona, the various local government offices (Generalitat de Cataluña) hoisted today the rainbow flag, a symbol of diversity in sexual orientation.

Specifically, the gay flag flies over the office of the Secretary General of Youth, the Catalan Institute for Women and the offices of the Program for the Gay, Lesbian and Transexual community.

In addition, the ruling political party PSOE (Socialist) has created a special website in honor of Pride called "Commitment to Equality".

In spite of what seems to be an open society with regard gay rights and visibility, unlike in the U.S. not all major cities in Spain have a Pride celebration, and some are celebrating it for the first time this year. In the case of Murcia, there will be no celebration because, according to 20 Minutos , "society in Murcia is not ready for it".

Meanwhile, there are people who aren't too keen on gay rights in Spain. The Spanish organization COGAM just awarded their "Pink Brick" award for the most homophobic person of the year to a radio host named Cristina López Schlichting, who has been known to say, among other things, gay marriage is destoying traditional marriage, hurting children and that gays are mentally ill. Sounds like the same kind of stuff we got going on over here.

Still, the celebrations will continue and at the end of the day, gay Spaniards do have something to celebrate that so many people in other countries (including our own) do not.

Via / 20 Minutos and El Plural

Photo of Madrid Pride 2005 via Sagarmin's Flickr page

Related

• Gay Website is...Homophobic? (Tuesday, Jan 29 2008)
• Uruguay OKs Civil Unions (Thursday, Dec 20 2007)