The campaign for Sexual Diversity Month that José Luis Sanz’s (PP) team has promoted in Seville in its first year in office has provoked the “outrage” of the LGTBI community in the midst of Pride celebrations. First it was a “totally heteronormative” poster, “decaffeinated” and lacking a “claiming message”, which has been compared on social networks to “the cover of the workbook of English”. But the last straw that “has broken the camel’s back of patience” of the LGTBI entities has been the radio spot in which reference is made to a “city pride”, as if it were “a tourist campaign” decontextualized from “the values that the group represents.”
“He is making us invisible by using the word pride as if it were a message of promotion of the city rather than empowerment of LGTBI people and their families, which is the objective of Diversity Month,” Pablo Morterero, president of the Adriano Andinoo association. This entity is one of those that has released a statement expressing its rejection of the City Council’s campaign, signed together with CCOO, UGT, Retos-Municipios Orgullosos, FOC Cultura con Orgullo and Adelante LGTBI. All of them and many other associations and people from the group share the feeling that the campaign designed by the popular ones “does not represent LGTBI pride at all.”
The controversy unleashed in Seville coincides with the criticism that the Pride poster promoted by another PP city council (that of Isabel Díaz Ayuso) has aroused in Madrid. While in the capital of Spain the group has criticized the “rancid stereotypes” in the design of the banners that hang from the streetlights (changing the symbols and acronyms LGTBIQ+ for drawings of heels, condoms or cocktail glasses), in the city Seville criticizes the lack of “artistic elaboration and a protest message”, which some leaders of the LGTBI community such as Manolo Rosado attribute to the “laziness” of political leaders.
Comparison with the city’s poster history
As in Madrid, in Seville social networks have been filled with criticism and reproaches of the Consistory, comparing the 2024 poster with that of previous years. “If you compare it with the posters of the last eight years, you see that it is an anomaly because they are always in the hands of an artist and dedicated to a specific topic,” says Manolo Rosado, president of the State Network of Proud Municipalities. and deputy director of the FOC Cultura con Orgullo.
The one from 2023, for example, the work of artist Daniel Dalopo, served to pay tribute to the figure of Ocaña on the 40th anniversary of his death. A year before, Ana Jarén was in charge of designing the poster announcing Pride Month, providing it with symbolism and identity elements of the city, such as orange blossom, oranges or tiles, combined with the colors of the LGTBI collective. The artistic elaboration and symbolic background of these works contrasts with the simplicity of the City Council poster for 2024, in which “neither the author is identified nor a leitmotiv nor any claim,” as Rosado points out.
But beyond a poster in which LGTBI people “go unnoticed,” what has truly outraged the entities that defend the rights of the group has been the radio spot that seems to be “promoting the city for tourism,” as Inma believes. García, current treasurer of the DeFrente association. “Pride does not belong to the city or any political party, but to those of us who give our all to fight to achieve our rights,” defends this veteran activist who has chaired the Andalusian LGTBI Pride Platform for years. in charge of organizing the traditional Pride march in the Andalusian capital.
The historical trans activist Mar Cambrollé expresses herself along similar lines, who finds the poster “too normative to be of pride”, but prefers to dedicate her energy to remembering that this June 25 marks 46 years since the first demonstration for sexual freedom in Andalusia. “Actually, I don’t care about the poster, the important thing is to celebrate the progress we have made and continue to claim what we have left,” defends her, who is also president of the ATA-Sylvia Rivera association.
Regarding the ad, Pablo Morterero points out that “I can be sexist and homophobic and be proud of my city”, hence he describes the campaign promoted by the PP Government as “unfortunate”, insofar as “it goes against the values that we LGTBI people defend”. In this regard, Manolo Rosado says that he misses a “message of a diverse, proud and plural city”. For all these reasons, Inma García considers that the City Council’s campaign “distorts our fight”, reducing it to a poster that could serve “to announce the flamenco biennial” and to an ad more appropriate “for tourism”.
Relevance to the relevant
The socialist municipal group has also joined the collective’s criticism, whose spokesperson, Antonio Muñoz, has stated that he has verified “how what was a consolidated agenda in the month of diversity has become an insignificant, devalued pride.” Muñoz has also criticized that it was proclaimed “through a completely decontextualized poster.” The socialist leader thus advocates for “unapologetic” pride, in the face of a PP Government that “does not believe in diversity” and celebrates it “with a small mouth,” in the words of Muñoz.
“It’s all nonsense,” concludes Inma García, also referring to the personality chosen this year to give the opening speech, the singer Pastora Soler. “Of course we need allies, but the opening speech has to be given by a person from the group because they are the ones who feel it and have suffered it,” explains the treasurer of DeFrente in this regard.
Although this LGTBI activist believes that they are trying to “distort our struggle,” she assures that “what interests us is our demonstration, our demands, the rest is secondary.” So, regardless of the controversy that the poster may provoke, what matters is that this Saturday the 29th “our voice is in the street shouting loudly” during the march in which the entities will ensure that the values of Pride are represented.
