LGBTQ community celebrates Day Against Homophobia

Coinciding with the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, the LGBTQ community on Thursday called on the political authorities to effectively implement the Catalan law protecting the community against discrimination. In an event in Tarragona, the Observatory Against Homophobia called for the elimination of prejudice against the LGBTQ community. According to the Observatory’s figures, so far this year there has been a rise in the number of incidents of homophobic discrimination in the workplace, as well as towards trans people being refused entry to venues, especially in Barcelona.

As the event coincided with Quim Torra’s inauguration, Observatory president Eugeni Rodríguez had a message for the new Catalan president, who in his investiture speech pledged policies to fight discrimination against the LGBTQ community. “We ask the president to appoint a directorate to work with organizations and to lead the way to a new stage. This should be the time for LGBTI people,” he said. On Tuesday, at an event marking the Day Against Homophobia, speaker Roger Torrent said Parliament aspires to a “free” society in which everyone “can be who they want and love who they want."

A number of similar events were held around Catalonia to commemorate the day celebrating 28 years since the World Health Organization stopped considering homosexuality a mental illness. In Tarragona, a manifesto was read out in front of the city council and a rainbow flag, the internationally recognized symbol of the LGBTI community, was hung from the city hall for the first time ever. “It is never too late,” said Rodríguez, who pointed out that rainbow flags first began to fly from some city hall buildings in 2010.