As you already know, in the last ordinary assembly it was agreed to open a process to change the name of our entity, so that the name was a reflection of the plurality that our association guarantees.

A virtual workshop with Zoom

We have already received the first proposals, and as part of the process we want to invite you to a virtual workshop that will take place on the 27th and 28th of this month, February, and which will be held in two sessions of one hour each.

The workshops will be held online with the Zoom Platform.

You can register filling the form that you will find at the end of this post.

The importance of a name

The importance of a name is vital so that efforts in communication and social marketing are effective and economic and human resources are not lost due to a lack of perception. The bibliography on the matter is long and bulky. There are many professors, thinkers and professionals who have been talking about it for a long time, and its evidence is proven. For this reason it is so important that we all work together to generate effective proposals that will be presented to our committee for a vote.

The keys of this process

This participatory process that we are carrying out intends for all of us to come up with a short and effective list of proposals to present to our committee. It is about presenting spontaneous candidatures (as is already being done) that will be added to those that will be generated in a small brainstorming session. Hence, through a group screening dynamic, which will determine those proposals that will be most effective, for formal reasons, creativity and connection with the public to whom the association is directed (avoiding the subjective criteria to come into play as much as possible), we will obtain a short list with the resulting proposals. Once this list reaches the committee, we will be sure that we have all collaborated in having made the most of this magnificent opportunity to take our association to a position more in line with our efforts and our desire to make this world a better place to all, without exception.

The term Gay no longer encompasses the community

Now a days, our name, Gay Sitges Link, has been descriptively helpful, but the use of the word “Gay” has changed, as has our community. There was a time when, on a global level (although, rather, on a non-Hispanic level) the term Gay encompassed the entire collective. But that has not been the case for many years.

Labels are watertight compartments

For quite some time now, the paradigms of our collective have branched out over and over again. The realities of gender identity and sexual orientation have multiplied for the umpteenth time. As some are normalizing, others find their foot in the first to begin to speak. Labels are watertight compartments, personal and social realities. And it is the evolution of these that generate the revision of those labels, of those names that the human being needs to use for reality to exist, as some philosophers would say.

Our name is non-inclusive

The problem is basic: our name is not inclusive, directly. It does not address them, it excludes them by sheer nomenclature. If my name is Manolo and an association called Pepe’s Association of Names addresses me, it is difficult for me to feel identified, to empathise, even if I have a name. The first thing I notice is that to feel part of this association I should call myself Pepe. With which, or I interpret that they have been confused and pass, or simply pass without more, since my brain directly is not going to worry the least bit in decoding the rest of the information that accompanies Pepe’s. It is a neuro scientific issue: the brain works with shortcuts, following the law of least effort. If I hear or read Pepe’s I no longer continue reading or listening, I do not identify myself, it is not for me, I do not empathise.

Any lesbian, bisexual or transsexual woman in town who is asked about our association will tell you the same thing: that they have never thought that our association is addressing them, no matter how much effort has been made by our communication and our projects. It goes without saying that if you address a pansexual person or a non-binary person the result is going to be exactly the same.

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