Firmly in the face of transphobia! Simply complicity, position yourself under the slogan LGTBI has called the Bizkaia E28 Coordinator to mobilize on the day of pride. A mobilization will be held on 28 June in Bilbao, Lekeitio and Sopelana; at 19:30 a demonstration will be launched in Bilbao from the Sacred Heart, at 19:00 a concentration will be held under the Leikeitio School and at 20:15 a demonstration will be held in Sopelana. As the refrain itself implies, support will be the positioning against transphobia. And that is that, as you have explained, on 28 June you have seen the importance of “positioning yourself in favour of the liberation of trans and against hate speech”, and to this you have driven individuals and collectives.

The coordinator expresses her concern about the emergence of speeches against transsexuals in Hego Euskal Herria in recent years. The anti-transphobia discourse, TERF, has pointed out in its public statement, “it is a discourse imported by figures of great economic and social capital, such as professors and university professors, or members of political parties that have been differentiating policies of equality from LGTB policies, which have historically not militated in the autonomous feminist movement.” This sector is accused of being making a historical suppression of the defense that transgender people are not subjects of the feminist movement, because the coordinator has stressed that trans people have always been part of the feminist struggle. He is accused of creating a conflict where there were no conflicts and of exerting violence against transsexuals in the name of freedom of expression.

“The message to be conveyed by this treacherous branch and conviction of feminism is not very different from the fascist message,” they regret. “They start from a bioessentialist premise: trans women are disguised men who want to invade female spaces; trans men are gird women alienated by internalized misogyny; and trans nonbinary people are victims of the evil queer lobby that wants to bring children to extinction. This growing cryptofascist movement in the Spanish state uses the same biological determinism historically used by patriarchy to act against trans people, especially against women, as well as to recycle the classical homophobic stereotypes about perversion and pedophilia.”

In the face of this trend, they have considered the key alliance with the feminist movement, understood as “the struggle for the autonomy of bodies”. So they ask him to position himself in favor of trans struggle, listing what this requirement could cover: E28 To adhere to the call of the Coordinator, to make public this adhesion “in a clear way” and to expel “ideological TERF” groups from feminist and leftist spaces and networks.

Boycott of pride

The positioning in the face of the transphobic discourse is not the only requirement of the LGTBI collective of Bizkaia to society. Pride is not on sale. Maritxu, trans, bollera: I plan on pride! with the motto, Pride – also called Bilbao Bizkaia Harro – makes a boycott of Pride, Ozoz, which is part of Coordinator E28. LGTB.

The collective reading is based on the exercise of historical memory, the depoliticization of the date driven by the Pride to show and counterbalance the original political character of the day of pride. From the mobilizations made by the Spanish Police in Orereta after Francis’ death to the present, they have recalled that “pride is a movement that has been moving and reinforcing the streets of Euskal Herria for more than 40 years.” “You don’t need to look at the United States to know that pride was a struggle and that it exists,” they say.

However, they suggest that in 2014 the depoliticization of the pride day intensified with the creation of the TRLGTB Ortzadar. Reason: The brand Bilbao Bizkaia Pride, registered by Ortzadar, and the Pride, which starts with the sponsorship of the City Council of Bilbao and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia. Although the initiative has changed its name to give it a more “political and vindictive” aspect, the members of Ozene have placed the Bilbao Bizkaia Harro in the city model that the City Council of Bilbao wants to promote. “Organizations don’t want to improve the material conditions of LGTB people, they don’t care! Meanwhile, the City Council and the Provincial Council grant major matches to Pride or allocate historic centers so that a few bourgeois gays can stay in a gay-friendly hotel,” they report. Thus, the collective has rejected the LGTB struggle being emptied of content and using the image of the collective for the benefit of the neoliberal city model: “We don’t want to be a ‘gay’ city. We do not want the injustices and layoffs in this city to be eliminated and cleaned up on our behalf, nor do we want the names of the two people who lived on the street and died this year to be hidden. On our behalf no!”

After this reading, he invites citizens to boycott “municipal facial cleanliness” or “pink-washing” and Pride.