Lesbians during the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

Lesbians during the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (2004 - 2011) in Spain achieved several legal and cultural milestones, including the right to marry and adopt children.

Legal and political situation for lesbians

Starting in 2005, the public political problems of lesbians became much less visible or were still emerging.  The major issues included homophobia.^[1]

In June 2005, an ERC member gave a speech in defense of sexual minorities as a component of defending human rights. This speech specifically mentioned lesbians. ERC's speech also specifically called for two women to be allowed to become parents.^[1]

Lesbians often benefited from broadening of women's rights.^[1]

Ángeles Álvarez was included in the PSOE list for the municipal elections of May 2007 in Madrid led by Miguel Sebastián .^[2] She was elected councilor in the opposition. She assumed the aportavocían adjunta of the Municipal Socialist Group from September 2007 until 2011.^[3] In July 2007, she was part of the first executive of Thomas Gomez in the Socialist Party of Madrid assuming the Secretariat for Equality Policies 2007 to 2011 and the Electoral Action of 2008 to 2011.^[4]

Spanish lesbians in this period tend to be involved in party politics with Izquierda Unida (IU) or PSOE. Lesbians were likely to be involved in these parties less because the parties supported lesbian rights, but more because they otherwise tended to align with their general political views.  As time progressed, these parties tended to align more closely with lesbian political goals.^[5]

Lesbian rights in this period were often defined by policy makers around family, as Spanish citizenship has traditionally placed a huge value on this. This included a focus on marriage and parenting.^[6]

Some lesbian political theorists like Gracia Trujillo at this time, informed by French feminist Monique Wittig, believed that maintenance of the divisions between the sexist was a political act about using sex roles to maintain the heterosexual systems; consequently, lesbians and other politically feminist women needed to challenge this and destroy these heterosexual systems from the inside.^[7]

In 2007, Spain was recognized as being one of the most advanced countries in the world when it came to protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender citizens.^[8]

Marriage equality

From 2002 to 2005, the lesbian and gay political agenda was focused around marriage equality.^[1]

Spain was the third country in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry when the law passed in 2005.^{[9][10][11][12][13][6]} They were behind only Netherlands who legalized marriage equality in 2001 and Belgium who legalized it earlier in 2003.^[10][11][14] Canada quickly followed later that year.^[11][14]

Same-sex marriage became law on 30 June 2005 after the Congress of Deputies successfully voted through a change in Spain's Civil Code that defined marriage as not being exclusively between a man and a woman.^[15][11] People could get married as of 3 July 2005.^[13] The law allowed religious organizations to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.^[14] Marriage equality was pushed as one of the first major agenda items for PSOE soon after they came to power after the elections.^[16] It passed by a vote of 187 for and 147 against with 2 abstentions.^[6] Marriage equality in Spain provided married lesbians in Spain with additional rights that civil unions had not provided, including inheritance rights, residence rights, the ability to adopt their spouse's children, tax benefits, and the right to divorce.^[6] Despite legal equality under the law, practically it was not so as opposite-sex couples did not require the male spouse to formally adopt his wife's children at birth; this burden only fell to lesbian couples.^[6][17]

Local municipalities had people who tried to say they could not perform same-sex marriages because of consciousness objections. When these officials and local governments were taken to court, they lost and were required to perform civil marriages for same-sex couples.^[6]

Despite the passage of legislation legalizing marriage equality, Partido Popular took the effort to court and tried to find ways to block its inception.  This included making arguments around "conscientious objection" so people would not have to perform same-sex marriages or provide services to same-sex couples.  PSOE made clear this was a non-issue because same-sex marriages could be performed civilly, and did not require approval from the Church for them.  Also, public officials are required by civil law to support the rights of citizens in this regard. Nonetheless, Partido Popular continued their legal challenges in the court.^[11]

Feminist voices were not heavily involved in the same-sex debate. There was no broad effort by Spanish feminists to explain the impact same-sex marriage would have on women.^[6] The Lesbian Feminists Group of Barcelona opposed marriage equality but never offered an alternative which others could coalesce around.  Consequently, the group was largely marginalized during the same-sex marriage debate.^[6]

Following the passage of same-sex marriage, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said, "Today, Spanish society gives [gays and lesbians] the respect they deserve, recognizes their rights, restores their dignity, affirms their identity and restores their freedom. It is true that they are only a minority; but their triumph is the triumph of all. Even if they ignore it, it is the triumph of those who oppose this law, because it is the triumph of freedom. Their victory makes us all better, makes our society better." (Spanish: Hoy la sociedad española les devuelve el respeto que merecen, reconoce sus derechos, restaura su dignidad, afirma su identidad y restituye su libertad. Es verdad que son tan sólo una minoría; pero su triunfo es el triunfo de todos. También aunque lo ignoren es el triunfo de quienes se oponen a esta ley, porque es el triunfo de la libertad. Su victoria nos hace mejores a todos, hace mejor a nuestra sociedad.)^[11]

During the deliberation of the law to approve same-sex marriage in Spain, Beatriz Gimeno, in her position as President of the FELGTB, lashed out against the stance of the People's Party (Spain) as well as the Catholic Church, who strongly opposed the proposed regulation of same-sex partnerships. The FELGTB called for a large march, that coincided with the Pride Parade, to celebrate the new law.^[18]

The Catholic Church and Partido Popular argued that lesbians and gays are unequal citizens, existing in a special other category of citizenship.  As such, these conservative groups argued that lesbians and gays should not be afforded the rights afforded to equal, non-othered citizens.  This allowed them also to oppose adoption by same-sex couples.^[1]

The parliamentary speech of Rosa M. Bonás Pahisa on 30 June 2005 about the passage of Law 13/2005, the marriage equality act, said its impact would be neutral as it came to lesbian and gay relationships.  There was no research done to support this and little research has been done since then to examine the impact on lesbian relationships.^[6]

Despite the passage of same-sex marriage, a few Spanish lesbian feminists from the queer theory school continued to oppose marriage equality.^[6]

In 2005, Partido Popular leader Mariano Rajoy launched an appeal to the Constitutional Court over the legality of same-sex marriage in Spain, seeking to use the courts to repeal the law.^[19]

In the first few months that same-sex marriage was legal, only 20% of the weddings involved female-female couples.  Half of these weddings involved lesbians who had been LGTB activists.^[20][6]

Same-sex marriage made lesbians less visible again, by making them in Spain defined again around being wives and mothers, integrating lesbians back into heterosexual models.^[1][6]

Ángeles Álvarez performed the same-sex marriage in Spain when she officiated Pedro Zerolo's wedding.  In October 2005, she was part of the first lesbian couple to get married at the Madrid City Hall.^[21] She did not openly identify as a lesbian though until 2013.^[22]

Ahead of the 2011 Spanish general elections, lesbians and gays were upset as Mariano Rajoy refused to commit to maintaining marriage equality if he was elected president even if the law was found to be constitutional.  This resulted in the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (FELGTB) accusing Partido Popular of homophobia.  FELGTB President Antonio Poveda said in response to this, "We will work energetically to prevent the PP repeal the rights conquered for lesbians, gays, transsexuals and bisexuals for what we will implement various initiatives to prevent citizens from backing a party that seeks to repeal the laws that have recognized us equality."^[23]

Adoption rights

Spain was the first country in the world to allow same-sex couples to adopt children when legislation was passed in 2005.^[9][14][24] Lesbian couples have internalized the deep-seated Spanish ideas of National Catholicism that place an important on family.  This has played a role in their activism around adoption rights.^[9] Lesbian and gay men began to have asymmetrical rights when it comes to options to become parents in this period following the ability for same-sex couples to adopt.  One area of difference involved access of gay men to surrogacy, which faces large internal opposition in Spain. One reason that explains this is Spanish cultural models around motherhood and fatherhood.^[9]

Reproductive rights

When the same-sex marriage law was passed, filiation was not addressed as it related to children produced in the marriage.  The only legal option consequently was for one spouse to adopt their spouse's children.^[25]

In procedures such as  artificial insemination or IVF for married lesbian couples, the non-child bearing spouse could have her name put down on the parent line traditionally reserved for fathers.^[9]

The  2006 Assisted Human Reproduction Act meant women could use reproductive assistance regardless of their marital status or sexual orientation, and allowed filiation of two mothers on the birth certificate.^[9][25] Congress and the Senate also passed a law in 2006 that said the creation of embryos for scientific research after that date was banned, with researchers who did this potentially being given a prison sentence of one to five years.  They also eliminated the number of embryos that could be extracted and fertilized.^[26]

Despite the legalization allowing lesbian women to use artificial reproductive assistance, few took advantage of the change in law in the first few years of its passage.  Many lesbians had just assumed that their relationships were non-reproductive and motherhood was not a realistic option.^[9]

It was only near the end of the Zaptero period that the cost of reproductive assistance came down and awareness of the law grew. Both these factors increased the number of lesbian couples seeking reproductive assistance in getting pregnant. The law though did not allow for direct donations of gamete to lesbian couples or single women.  Consequently, all donations had to be free and done anonymously.^[9] The only exception to get around the need for anonymous donations was the Reception of Ovocytes from Partner (ROPA) technique, which allowed lesbian women to donate an egg to her partner for fertilization using an anonymous sperm donation for fertilization.^[9] The ROPA method became more popular among lesbians as a result.^[9] The ability of lesbian couples to procreate in this period served to challenge Spanish concepts of the nuclear family with one mother and one father.  At the same time, the ability of lesbian women to procreate also served to reinforce the Spanish ideal that womanhood and motherhood are the same.^[9]

In 2006, PSOE promised lesbian couples that they would review Article 6 of the Law of Assisted Reproduction to see about giving non-gestating spouses automatic paternity rights.^[6]

By the end of this period, unmarried lesbian couples with children still lacked legal recognition similar to that of unmarried heterosexual couples, where the surviving partner automatically was granted custody of children produced during the relationship.^[25]

Pension rights

A lesbian couple from Andalusia became involved in 1984. They did everything they could since they were involved to legally bind themselves to each other.  This included having joint checking accounts, listing both their names on a vehicle they owned and making sure they were listed as cohabitants.  They registered as a de facto couple in 2000, as marriage and civil unions were not yet legally available.  In 2002, one member of the couple died and in December of that year, she filed a claim with Spanish Social Security to try to collect a widow's pension.  The claim was denied as the state did not recognize her as being legally married.  The rejection kick started a long legal process.  The woman claimed she was discriminated against because of her orientation at the High Court of Justice of Andalusia, but they rejected the claim.  She appealed to the Constitutional Court in February 2005.  Her appeal was suspended in 2008 pending the result of a similar case.  In June 2014, the Constitutional Court finally dismissed her appeal and denied her the right to a pension.^[27]

Government spending

In 2009, the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero provided a grant of €28,810 to support research about the situation of lesbians and gays in Zimbabwe.^[28]

European lesbian political and legal status

In December 2004, Directive 2004/113 / EC of the European Council was published, asserting that men and women should have equal access to the supply of goods and services.^[29]

The European Parliament pass a resolution promising to fight homophobia on 18 January 2006.^[29]

The  Directive 2006/54 / EC of the European Parliament and of the European Council said men and women should have equal opportunities in the workforce, both in terms of their occupational choices and in their employment opportunities.^[29]

International lesbian political and legal status

In December 2008, sixty-four members of the United Nations supported an appeal that urged all member countries to decriminalize homosexuality.  Countries that did not support this appeal included the United States, Russia, China, the Vatican or any Muslim majority country.^[30]

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) was formally accepted as a consultative member of the Economic and Social Council  (ECOSOC) in July 2009 after a three-year process; IGLHRC faced a lot of opposition to its inclusion in the body.^[30]

Despite the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay speaking out and condeming the criminalization of homosexuality in Uganda in early 2010, the country was elected to be a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council in May 2010.^[30]

Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon made a speech in September 2010 calling for countries to abolish laws that are discriminatory against lesbians and gays.^[30]

Organizations

The Madrid based university affiliated LGBT emancipation organization Arcópoli changed their policy in 2009 to allow anyone to join, not limiting it just to people affiliated with a university.^[31]

Lesbian Policy Area of FELGTB continued to be influential even through numerous leadership changes in this period. Patricia Ojeda took over Desirée Chacón's Coordinator position in 2005. Col·lectiu Lambda del País Valencià member Carmen G. Hernández was voted coordinator in January 2007.  She was replaced by Arcópol activist  Esther Martínez in February 2009 but only held the position for a month before being replaced by Platform of Activists Without Shame member Marina Sanz.^[32]

Culture

As the LGBT community began to be perceived as a collective market to sell products and services to in this period, lesbians and working class members of the LGBT community more generally were often not included as part of these efforts, leaving lesbians out of the neoliberalist attitudes of these companies towards the broader LGBT community.^[33] Businesses see the community as a market composed of only gays and lesbians, Madrid City Council consultant for Diversity Consulting Juan Pedro Tudela said of commercialization of Madrid Pride, "Hotel chains do not universalize, normalize; we are a segment, not a collective ... and I speak of gays and lesbians, because bisexuals and transsexuals are not a segment ... In the western world, rights have already been achieved, activist demands do not make sense [to these brands] and neither do the way [LGBT activists] carry them out (half naked dudes dancing on top of a baffle, or with tutu, heels and a nun's headdress."^[33]

Spain is made up of multiple subcultures including Catalan, Basque and Castilian.  These subcultures lead to a situation where Spanish lesbian culture is not unified.^[34]

Lesbians, as a group and a culture, continued to be largely ignored by Spanish society compared to gay men. They remained rather invisible. Knowledge about lesbians from this period does not come from the same sources about Spanish gay men of the period.^[35][34]

The Women's Area of the Fundación Triángulo de Madrid has explained the invisibility of lesbians in this and other periods as, "A gay man has always been able to move to another place, seeking to live his identity in freedom. While a lesbian woman stayed near her house. There are always parents, brothers or children to take care of and those who do not disappoint ". Rocio Jimenez explained this further, saying, "And that's how lesbians have developed since invisibility, at the expense of that scarlet letter that a man has never had to deal with."^[36] According to Mexican feminist Gloria Careaga, feminism often  "moves away from aspects such as sexuality and intimate life to focus on the social and the political."^[36] Rocío González of Fundación Triángulo said that feminists feared the "contagion of stigma" and disassociated themselves from lesbians.^[36]

Lesbians in the mid-2000s continued to face double discrimination because of their gender and because of their sexual orientation.  This impacted their lives, with economic consequences that made it hard for many lesbians to come out of the closet. For lesbians, lesbophobia was a problem that needed to be specifically addressed outside the context of just homophobia.^[20]

In December 2005, some of the most important issues for lesbians were work place discrimination, social discrimination, motherhood and the problem of the lack of visibility in society. FELGT President Beatriz Gimeno said at the time that the problems of lesbians were similar to that of gay men in the mid-1980s in Spain. Gimeno also said that gay men had done a lot of work towards supporting civil rights for lesbians and gay men, including achieving same-sex marriage, but that society still was not accepting of lesbians.^[20]

In December 2005, around 300 lesbians met in Valencia to discuss the problem of the lack of visibility lesbians faced and to condemn male homosexuals for not assisting in drawing attention to their lesbian counterparts. This took place as part of the  II Conference on Lesbian Policies, which was supported by FELGT and organized by Lambda. Luisa Notarioo was the event coordinator.^[20]

Lesbians in this period were often in feminist spaces.^[35]

Masculine women in this period were often accused of being lesbians because of their subversion of traditional Spanish gender norms.  This existed despite the fact that not all Spanish lesbians are masculine, nor were all masculine women lesbians.^[35]

Women in relationships with other women in this period did not always refer to themselves as lesbians.^[35]

One of the reasons that lesbians continued to be invisible in this period is that they are less easily recognizable than gay men as they are generally first identified as women.^[35]

Lesbians in Spain were less likely to marry than gay men in this period.^[35]

Depopulation had become an issue. For those who remained who were lesbians in rural areas, it began to find it much easier to come out, even if they were the first ones in their village to do so. One of the biggest issues for lesbians in rural areas is socialization and lack of a support network. The first woman to come out often became a reference point for everyone else in the town as to who lesbians are.^[37]

FELGTB supported the Year of Lesbian Visibility in 2008.^[15]

In 2008, the EuroGay Games were held in Barcelona.^[24]

The Pope visited Barcelona in November 2010.  Many women, and especially lesbians, came out to protest his appearance in the city.  One woman told El Pais about her decision to protest, "The church calls us witches and sinners to decide on our body and our sexuality."^[38]

The success of Spain's marriage equality in this period made it easier for many lesbians in Latin America to finally come out of the closet.^[39] In Spain, marriage equality also made it much easier for older women to come out of the closet and identify as lesbians.^[39]

In 2011, Cameroonian Danielle Nicole Mboume arrived in Spain successfully seeking asylum for because she was a lesbian. In 2012, she would go on to become the first African woman to marry another Africa woman in Spain.^[40]

In lists of most influential homosexuals in Spain, lesbians rarely appear or appear much less frequently than their male counterparts.^[22]

In this period, public displays of affection between lesbians were largely frowned upon outside of Spain's more urban areas.^[41]

Madrid, Barcelona, Sitges and Ibiza all had nightclubs that welcome lesbians in this period.^[41]

Large Spanish companies in this period rarely had LGBT diversity policies in this period as they did not feel a need to have them.^[42] Companies that did address diversity in this period generally broke down the concept into five areas.  These included women, LGBT, culture, work-life balance and functional diversity.  Women, work-life balance and culture were the most common of the three types of diversity with public published diversity practices.^[42]

For American lesbians getting married or having civil unions, Barcelona was one of their top destination cities in Europe for a honeymoon.^[13]

In 2011, Arcópoli held a contest to design a lesbian flag, inviting lesbians from all over the country to submit designs and lesbians from all around the world to vote on a symbol to which they feel comfortable being represented by.  The contest was won by Mercedes Díaz Rodríguez.^[43]

Parenting

Lesbians were much more likely to have children than their gay male counterparts by the end of this period by a rate of more than 2:1. Sociologist Gerard Coll-Planas explained this as, "There is a basic difference: it is very different to have two uteri available, as in a lesbian couple, that they have none, which is what is given in a gay couple."^[44] At the same time, women could use reproductive techniques and get Social Security after getting birth.^[44] Despite this, it was still difficult for some women to become pregnant as infertility treatments were not available for same-sex female couples through public health.^[44]

Despite the argument by others that children of same-sex parents would be bullied and so homosexual parents should not be allowed to adopt or pro-create, children of lesbians in this period were not.  One child of lesbian parents said,  "As a child, people told me that it was impossible for me to have two mothers, that one was my aunt, that I had a father but did not know where I was or was adopted, and then the children came to my house for birthday parties and they understood perfectly: you have two mothers, that's it, and when they got to their homes it was their parents who did not believe it, but it's a question of ignorance, then they accepted it."  One child recalled how their classmates stood up to a homophobic teacher who condemned same-sex marriage efforts in 2005.^[45]

Children of lesbians in this period did not turn out to be homosexual, or even follow their mother's religious beliefs. Children of lesbian couples also did not suffer psychological problems as a result of having two female parents.^[45]

Relationships

Lesbian relationships at times continued to be invisible, with people referring to lesbian co-habitating girlfriends or spouses as roommates.^[46]

Marriage

Downsides for lesbians as it relates to same-sex marriage included cultural pressure to follow heterosexual relationship models around monogamy, cohabitation and sharing of economic assets.^[6] Article 68 of the Civil Code says,"The spouses are obliged to live together, be faithful and help each other. They must also share domestic responsibilities and the care and attention of ascendants and descendants and other dependents dependent on them."^[47][6]

On 3 October 2005, the first marriage between lesbians took place at the Barcelona City Council.^[48]

Despite marriage equality, lesbians were less likely to marry than their gay male counterparts.^[6][17] Between July and December 2005, only 352 of the 1,275 same-sex marriages involved female-female couples. Lesbians did not see much benefit to getting married unless marriage was needed to protect their children, their wealth or to attain residency.^[6] In 2006, only 2% of all marriages were between two women, representing 28% of all same-sex marriages that occurred that year.^[17][6] Lesbians were more as likely to marry foreigners than heterosexuals and less likely than gay men in 2006. 15% of lesbian marriages involved women where one spouse was a foreigner and 4% involved two foreign women.  This compared to 29% and 6% respectively for gay men and 12% and 4% for heterosexual couples respectively.^[17]

Of the lesbian marriages between July and December 2006 published by the Ministry of Justice 32% of lesbian marriages took place in the Comunidad de Madrid, while 26% took place in Catalonia, 12% in Andalusia and 8% in the Comunidad de Valencia.^[6]

Over time in this period, the number of marriages by lesbian have been increasing, though at a slower rate than gay men.^[49] Over time, the number of marriages by lesbian have been increasing, though at a slower rate than gay men.  Lesbians, when marrying foreigners between 2005 and 2009, were most likely to marry North and South Americans at 83.6%, much higher than gay men at 77.8% and heterosexuals at 56.1%.  Lesbians, when marrying foreigners, were least likely to marry Africans at 1.9% compared to 3.1% for gay men and 14.6% for heterosexuals. While Spanish women marrying foreigners were most likely to marry blue-collar works at 48.4%, as a group lesbians were most likely among all groups to marry foreigners with blue collar jobs at 44% compared to 38.4% for heterosexuals and 43.6% for gay men. 81.6% of all lesbians marrying foreigners between 2005 and 2009 did so with spouses between the ages of 19 and 40. This is a higher percentage than gay men at 78.3% and the same percentage as heterosexuals.^[49]

By 2010, five years after marriage equality was legalized, the divorce rate in Spain for same-sex couples was 1.13%, much lower than the 60% rate for opposite-sex couples.^[39][17]

Workplace and employment

Despite advances in Spanish society, lesbians were still more likely to remain in the closet at work than gay men for a number of reasons. These include facing double discrimination, for being female and a sexual orientation minority.  Another reason is that in the absence of many broader out lesbians in Spanish society, lesbians are open about their sexual orientation often become their co-workers fixed point of references for all lesbians and this can be an uncomfortable burden people do not want to share.^[50]

In the workplace, lesbians also face issues of invisibility; everyone assumes that lesbians are heterosexual until it is proven otherwise. These heterosexist stereotypes then make it more challenging for lesbians, both in terms of being out or keeping lesbians in the closet.^[51]

Pride (Spanish: Orgullo)

The number of lesbians involved in organizing and being visible in Spanish pride events declined in this period; those involved often had lower level positions.^[52] Queer lesbian activist and sociology professor Gracia Trujillo has been particularly critical of this commercialization, saying, "Why do companies have to participate in a demonstration? I go to many others, such as May 1 or International Women's Day and there are no companies taking anything. It seems to me an example of the invasion of spaces of protest by neoliberalism and of "I tolerate you because you consume and while you consume" that is something, precisely, intolerable. The rights of lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, queers are not a business, as are not those of any group discriminated against. As we neglect, in this context of privatization of public space, we are privatizing the demonstration! ... Today it is still necessary to be seen, but I believe that visibility has to be something strategic about what each one decides."^[33]

Pride continued to be written in the masculine and to be primarily run by gay men in this period.^[53]

The theme of the 2005 Madrid Pride parade was equality for gays and lesbians.^[54]

In 2007, FELGTB and COGAM helped organize European Pride in Madrid on 28 June.  They were both celebrating marriage equality having become law in Spain and demanding marriage equality become law in other parts of Europe.  The Madrid LGBT Pride event was the largest event of its kind in the world at that time.^[15]

One float in Madrid Pride in 2011 was called 100 visible lesbian.^[33] Despite the overt commercialization of Madrid Pride by the end of this period, COGAM and FELGTB still tried to maintain symbols and markers that indicated they were really activists involved in a protest.^[33]

Awareness

A 2009 study of Spanish high schoolers found that 82.3% knew a gay man but only half knew a lesbian or bisexual person and 42.7% knew a transgender person.  Most students knew about LGBT people only from television.^[55] Only 26 of the 2,329 girls in the survey said they were mostly or always attracted to girls, representing 1.1% of all respondents.^[55] Among all students, 23.6% knew lesbians because they were an acquaintance, 14.8% knew lesbians because they were a close friend, 12% because they were classmates, 4.4% because they were family and 7.3% because they had lesbian teachers.^[55] The survey found that among male students, a majority said they were more likely to try to hook up with a girl if she came out as a lesbian and this percentage increased as male students got older for a rate of 13.2% overall. This contrasted to a rate of 1.3% of boys who would try to hook up with a male classmate who came out as gay, 4.3% of boys who said they would try to hook up with a classmate who came out as bisexual and 0.7% of boys who said they would try to hook up with a classmate who came out as transgender.^[55] The study found that Spanish high school girls were less comfortable with lesbian classmates than they were with gay male classmates. 10.0% of girls said they would try to change their seats if a classmate came out as a lesbian, 36.8% said they would do nothing but feel uncomfortable, 25.9% said they would support their lesbian classmate while 1.2% said they would try to hook up with them.^[55]

Discrimination

Lesbians on the Spanish internet via search engines were primarily represented by pornography.^[35]

Outside Restaurante José Luis in 2010, a lesbian couple alleged that they were insulted and hit on the face by an elderly man on the street after they kissed in the restaurant. They allege he said, "You are sick and tortilleras, go to your house, shit bolleras". Montse and Marta publicized the attack to try to raise awareness that lesbians still face discrimination in society.^[56]

In October 2010, the Partido Popular run City of Valencia changed the filters on government computers that led to sexual diversity being associated with pornography, with searches of words like lesbiana being blocked as a result. The LGBT activist group Lambda opposed such linking and claimed such filters were problematic as lesbians and other sexual minorities need to be able to access information useful to them at public municipal centers like libraries.^[57] The government eventually said they had lifted the filters, blaming the American company they used for putting them into place. Despite this, activists said that the filter was still in place at schools and lesbians and other sexual minorities were still unable to access important information related to sexual orientation.^[58]

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights said that 44% of lesbians have had to deal with homophobic comments while at work.  25% of European lesbians have also said they have faced employment or salary discrimination because of their orientation.^[22] 

The lack of visibility for lesbians is a type of violence experienced by lesbians as silencing of lesbian voices equals repression and violence. When lesbians and gay men are treated the same, lesbians suffer because the reality of their being female and suffering additional sex based discrimination is ignored.^[22]

Lesbians were still being asked by men if they knew if they were really lesbians, and why didn't they have sex with said man asking the question to find out. Lesbians were still being asked if they knew they were really lesbians if they had never tried having sex with someone with a penis. Lesbians kissing in public could have men stop them to try to protect them or tell them to go to another place, and might insist they were not jealous when asked why they were commenting on something that had nothing to do with them. Lesbians were still getting asked who wore the pants in the family or who is the father.^[46]

Lesbians as a market sector continued to be ignored, even when the market sector was essentially claimed to be aimed at the LGBT community.^[53]

Language

In November 2009, the Asociación por la Recuperación de la Memorioa Histórica launched a campaign to try to get the Spanish Royal Academy of Language (RAE) to change dictionary definition around the words marriage to make them more inclusive and less pejorative.^[59]  They had already succeeded with similar efforts with Royal Galician Academy earlier in the year who agreed to change the definition of marriage and pedophilia.^[60][59] Catalan Academy of the Language had also changed the Catalan language definition of marriage to be gender inclusive. Other words they were seeking to get definitions changed to be more inclusive and less pejorative included homosexuality, bisexuality, hermaphrodite and pederast.^[59][61] The Spanish Royal Academy of Language would not make the change until the 2012 edition, seven years after same-sex marriage became legal in Spain.^[62][63]

In 2011, Consell de la Joventut de Valencia (CJV) created a guide for more inclusive language that was non-heterosexist.  It wanted to people to avoid using the word homosexual or gay and instead use LGTB so as not to erase and to increase the visibility of lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals.  They also suggested that consideration be made to use gender neutral wording when a person's gender is not known.^[64]

Feminism

Lesbian separatism

The lesbian separatist movement was in decline from its high point of the early 1980s in this period.^[52]

Media

Literature

A word from you (Spanish: Una palabra tuya) by Elvira Lindo was published in 2005.  It won the Biblioteca Breve Prize.  It was a best seller that year and featured a lesbian story line.^[65]

Miamor.doc by Concha Garcia was re-released in 2008, this time by Editorial Egales.  The book was important when it was first published in 2001 in terms of consolidating the lesbian fiction genre inside Spain, and featured homoerotic depictions.  People had been looking for it to be republished given its importance in the genre.^[66]

Television

Lesbian characters often appeared on television to reinforce heteronormativity, not to challenge it.  When they appeared in an erotic context, it was often for the male gaze as opposed to for a lesbian consumer.^[67] Spanish television only began to show lesbians having more realistic and normal relationships after same-sex marriage became legal in 2005.^[68]

Hospital Central ran from 2000 to 2012.  It featured a bollera nurse named Esther played by Fátima Baeza who finally finds love when Doctor Mada, played by Patricia Vico, appears in her life. Throughout the show, the pair go through a number of lesbian cliches including coming out of the closet, cheating, getting married and becoming pregnant.  The show is notable for being one of the few to end with a lesbian couple getting a happily ever after.^[69] The depiction of lesbians on the show was important as it did so without being explicitly about portraying lesbians through the male gaze.^[67][68] It was also important because it showed one of the first normal and realistic lesbian relationships on Spanish television.^[68]

Paco's Men (Spanish: Los hombres de Paco) ran from 2005 to 2009.  Season four introduced the character Pepa, Paco's sister.  She falls in love with her sister-in-law, Silvia.  The day Pepa and Silvia announce their engagement, Silvia is murdered.  This follows a trope in Spanish television that lesbian couples cannot live happily ever after.^[69] To a point, the show's portrayal of lesbians was less about the male gaze than other depictions of lesbians on Spanish television that had preceded it.^[67]

Love in troubled times (Spanish: Amar en tiempos revueltos) aired from 2005 to 2012 on RTVE, with the show set in the Francoist period.  The show featured Ana played by Marina San José and Teresa played by Carlota Olcina.  The rich Ana and the poor Teresa were both married but managed a relationship, raising Ana's son and Teresa's nephew together.  To be able to live together, the fake their deaths and escaped to Portugal together.  The show implied the couple had a happily ever after.  When Antena 3 picked up the show in 2013, they suggested the couple died in a fire.^[69]

Tierra de Lobos ran from 2010 to 2014 on Telecinco.  The show was set in the 19th century.  Isabel, played by Adriana Torrebejano, fell in love with a prostitute named Cristina played by Berta Hernández. Forced to marry an army lieutenant to keep up appearances after her father discovered their relationship, Isabel's relationship with Cristina was discovered by her new husband.  Isabel and Cristina then try to flee together after Cristina becomes pregnant. Cristina was then killed in a struggle with Isabel's husband.^[69]

Internet

María Sefidari, known as Raystorm on Wikipedia, was one of the major writers of the English Wikipedia article, "Same-sex marriage in Spain," updating the article often in 2007.  She was one of 182 members of the English Wikipedia LGBT Wikiproject, founded in March 2006.^[70][71] Sefidari went on to create the LGBT Wikiproject on Spanish Wikipedia. She also created the article about Ellen DeGeneres on Spanish Wikipedia. She believed it was important to include information about homosexuality and queer culture on Wikipedia as part of serving the mission of the encyclopedia, saying, "There is a certain current of thought for which being LGBT is a minor detail of the lives of professionals and people , and that mentioning it is unnecessary, when in fact it has had a profound impact on their lives because they have been discriminated against, marginalized or persecuted."^[71] Including information on orientation is important to her because "knowledge breaks prejudices."^[71] She later went on to serve as Vice President of Wikimedia Spain 2010 and 2012, and then the board of the Wikimedia Foundation in 2016.^[71]

References

This page was last edited on 19 March 2024, at 12:34