The island demonstration of LGTBI + pride in Tenerife took on the afternoon of this Friday, July 1, the streets of Cross port for, in a much tone more vindictive than festive, emphasize that pride is the fight for equality and freedom. More than a thousand people, according to the organizers, and about 500, according to the calculations of the National PoliceThey traveled the distance that separates the Plaza del Charco and the beach of Martiánez behind a banner that read: «In the face of hatred, pride does not lose the north. Tenerife is diverse». The multicolored flags, the fans, the whistles and the batucada complemented a march in which they called for a society “no closets all year!” don’t give “Not one step back in diversity!”.
Slogans were chanted such as “We don’t parade, we demonstrate!” and signs were carried with phrases such as “the only choice I made was to be myself”, “I am not a debate” or “families of trans childhood do not give up”. Without stopping singing throughout the tour, the spirit of the march can be summed up in two of the most repeated songs. A nod to a controversial phrase by the former mayor of Madrid Ana Bottle: «I like pears, I like apples, and in bed I sleep with whoever I want!». and a success of Alaska in the 80s, turned into an anthem LGBTI: “Who cares what I do, who cares what I say, I am like this and I will continue like this, I will never change”.
The attendees called for a society “without wardrobes all year round” that does not take “one step back in diversity”
The groups had this Friday, July 1, the support of politicians from parties such as the CC, the Portuense Citizen Assembly, the Icodense Alternative and, especially, the PSOE, which had a wide representation. The president of Tenerife, Peter Martinparticipated in the march behind a banner that read “Proud Tenerife” and stressed that “it has been a success, there was a desire to hold a meeting like this, especially now that the waves of some who want to reconsider many of the freedoms that this country has achieved are reaching us.”
The mayor of Porto Mark Gonzalez, highlighted that “success is not only this demonstration, but also having opted for LGTBI policies, as Puerto de la Cruz has done, which was the first city in the Canary Islands to have a specific LGTBI council and this is also the fruit of that harvest. Highlighting, of course, the work of groups and activism. Because this success is yours. the socialist deputy Nira Fierro He said that the demonstration has been “historic” in “an open city, which has always opted for freedom and diversity, and which today demonstrates it on the street.”
It was not a parade, the LGTBI groups on the island parked the most festive atmosphere and opted for the vindication of diversity behind a banner that could read: «In the face of hatred, pride does not lose its north. Tenerife is diverse.
The demonstration concluded next to Martiánez beach with the reading of a manifesto agreed by the groups Various, Transboys, Canary Pride, Chrysallis and Libertrans, to “launch the greatest cry of courage to make it clear that we are here, that we are not going to disappear, that we are going to continue demanding real and effective equality, rights and social changes”. Between his demands, the Trans and LGTBI + Lawequal trans rights, recognition of the identity of non-binary people, the end of hate speech and “equality and freedom for all sexual, gender and family diversity”.
