Madrid hosts and debates global gay pride
Madrid is gearing up to be the world capital of gay pride, a colourful mixture of commercialism and all-night partying that has brought vindication for sexual and gender diversity and created fissures among LGBT activists.
“Pride Yes, But Not Like This,” reads the banner a residents’ association is planning to stretch across Chueca square in the heart of the city’s gay quarter during the 10-day WorldPride celebration that started on Friday.
The rainbow flags flying from balconies in and around the square are evidence that the Chueca neighbourhood is still the epicenter of Spain’s LGBT movement. But the flags decorating bars and shops, advertising anything from socks to bags of popcorn, have come to symbolize the aggravation anticipated by the people who live there.
“We are against the commercialization of gay pride by business people. It’s an attack on the neighbours of this quarter and on the city,” said Esteban Benito, president of the local residents’ group, which has denounced the dirt, noise and large crowds gathered outside bars that accompany the annual festival.
Lesbians, gays, transgender people and bisexuals grouped in the Critical Pride collective are opposing this year’s event, too. The collective has called for an alternative LGBT parade to highlight how WorldPride is “a direct threat through a stereotyped vision of our identities.”
But Jesus Generelo, who heads the Spanish federation of LGBT people, defended the enormous festival that is expected to draw three million visitors to Madrid. The federation is leading the massive demonstration and parade scheduled for July 1.
The festival “rounds out beautifully the transformation we have brought about in the country to achieve equality in the laws,” Generelo said.
Considered the Olympics of pride celebrations, WorldPride is a franchise that attracts global attention to LGBT events in different cities. London held it in 2012 and Toronto in 2014. New York will be the next host, in 2019, to mark 50 years since the Stonewall riots.
The parade through the centre of Madrid will make calls to extend LGBT rights across the world, with particular emphasis on Chechnya and the rest of Russia. It will also demand that the World Health Organization stop categorizing transgender identity as a mental illness.
Fifty-two floats sponsored by businesses, political organizations and popular brand-name companies are registered to participate, a lineup the organizers are calling a “Manfiesta” that highlights the festival’s party element as well as the rights demands.
“It can be both things, because capitalism has transformed gay pride just as it has football or political campaigns,” Begonya Enguix Grau, an anthropologist at the Catalan UOC open university, said. “We shouldn’t think that just because there are floats, no one is making demands for rights,” she said.
A subway strike is likely to cause some problems but with official predictions of between two to up to three million tourists arriving in Madrid — a city of just under four million people — security is deemed to be the main concern.
At least 2,000 police agents are being deployed for the July 1 parade.
Spain legalized same-sex marriages and adoptions in 2005. More than 40,000 such weddings have already taken place.