Last Tuesday May 17, we celebrated in Sitges the International Day against LGTBIFOBIA. One of those days that is every day for many of us, and that should never be celebrated, because it would mean that there would be no discrimination and our rights as people would be respected.

Unfortunately, in the 21st century there is still this phenomenon of social violence against which we have no choice but to continue fighting, taking to the streets, demanding respect and equality in real rights. Once again, this year we have repeated the motto, “Against LGTBI+fòbia, say la teva“, because we still have a lot to do and say.

This is how we live in Sitges on May 17 of this year 2022:

At 5:30 p.m. we were summoned to the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, where we began a protest march with a clear message: Our Love does not Kill. Your Hate Yes.

The main streets of Sitges were the catwalk for a march of colors, flags, protest cries, love in its purest form, union between people and a lot of positive energy.

The march ended at the sculpture of the Pink Triangle on the promenade, a symbol of the struggle of the LGTBIQ+ collective. Prado García, Marcos Renato and Martín Martín, members of the board of the Colors Sitges Link association, which called the march, opened the event by welcoming and thanking the high participation of the march, with a short but forceful speech that drew applause when referring to the times we live in: “Let’s make ourselves heard, now that they want to silence us, now that they want to erase us, because silence will always be an accomplice of injustice, of hatred, of violence. It is not a time of silence, it is a time to speak, very loudly, very clearly. It is time to “say la teva!”“.

Immediately afterwards, an open mic session began where everyone was invited to “DIR LA TEVA!“, to say whatever they wanted, whatever they thought. There were brave people who opened their hearts and shared their personal stories, their life experiences with LGTBIphobia. Other people were encouraged to sing, while many others made their floral offering by planting flowers around the Triangle, a beautiful tribute to all those people who were victims of LGTBIFOBIA and who are no longer here. Many photos, faces that are not alien to us because they have suffered the same stigma, the same violence that has taken them, hung from a large net over the Pink Triangle. A powerful, shocking and emotional image. Little by little, the Network was also filled with colored paper with messages of hope and support written by those attending the event.

At 7:40 p.m., several people read the Manifest in the three official languages ​​of CSL (Spanish, Catalan and English). The manifesto proposed by Colors Sitges Link was joined by groups such as the Feminist Assembly No em toquis la Tecla, the Punt R of Sant Pere de Ribes and the Sitges City Council itself.

After reading the manifesto, it was the turn of the president of the Colors Sitges Link association, Pedro Martín, to speak, who spoke of the daily struggle that, from the association, is carried out and that has increased in the last years. He spoke about health, about the need to socialize, about the actions promoted by the CSL for the LGBTIQ + community of Sitges. And he reiterated that “ although in recent years we have made progress in terms of rights, LGtBI-phobia is still very present in the streets of the whole world and in all areas of daily life. For this reason, we come together here in Sitges today to underline that we must continue working to make the town a municipality free of discrimination and LBTBI-phobia”.

Then, the councilor for Social Rights and Equality, Júlia Vigó, who valued the work of the LGTBIQ+ Colors Sitges Link association and remarked that “today, just over thirty years ago, the World Health Organization declassified homosexuality as a mental health disorder, a date that we cannot forget. We are here in front of this monument, to face a dark episode in our local history. And it must be part of the past, because in the present and, above all, in the future there must be no room for LGTBIQ+phobia”.

The mayor of Sitges, Aurora Carbonell, was in charge of closing the event with a speech as successful and emotional as always, she highlighted how year after year we all meet in this Triangle to remind us that we continue to fight against LGTBIFOBIA, that the fight belongs to everyone and we will only be able to win this battle with the involvement and will of everyone. She also stressed the importance of learning from past mistakes. The Mayor recalled some words of October 14, 2006 written by the journalist sitgetan, Vicenç Morando in El Eco de Sitges, when the Triangle was changed: “Any human community must be able to review its history, however crude it may be, without doing more harm than necessary. It is only necessary to propose it from sensitivity and from common sense”.

The act concluded with the participation of the choir Cantem Colors!, who enthused with the well-known LGTBIQ+ anthem “Everybody looks at me” (Gloria Trevi), with an empowered force that stands up to the mistreatment and reinforces our values and strengths. The magic, the strength, the power of union, the love, the respect and the joy of being one day closer to the end of the fight, were the smells that were breathed at the end of the day, on the afternoon of the 17th of May 2022, before the Pink Triangle, in a small Mediterranean town called Sitges.

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