The Cabildo de Tenerife is the first public administration to condemn “outright” the statements made by the Bishop of Tenerife, Bernardo Álvarez Afonso, on January 19, in which he referred to homosexuality “in a pejorative and demeaning manner”. The motion, presented by the PSOE, acquired an institutional character. The specific condemnation is joined by the global one on “any form of LGBTIphobia and hate speech that promotes, directly and indirectly, violence and discrimination against LGBTI+ people.” The third point of the agreement proposes to transfer this “to the Bishopric of Tenerife, to the Spanish Episcopal Conference and to the 31 Municipalities of the Island.”
The text recalls that on January 19 various media echoed the “despicable” statements about Álvarez’s homosexuality. He values that “it has become one of the main generators of hatred in the Canary Islands against the LGTBI + collective.”
The bishop’s first incendiary statements were in 2007 when he stated that “homosexuality harms people and society”, in addition to “linking sexual orientation with the abuse of minors”.
The latest statements, furthermore, argues the final text, are made at a time when “the appearance of the extreme right has caused a growth in hate speech.” These statements “do nothing to help fight them and that they do not continue to permeate society.”
Álvarez stated that day 19 in an interview that “despite the fact that they know it is wrong, they do it, without being conditioned by anything. It is like the person who drinks and when he drinks, he does whatever nonsense. Of course, what you have to do is not drink. In this way, he linked “living sexual orientation freely with suffering from a disease such as alcoholism.” He stated that “homosexuality is a mortal sin.”
The motion considers the Tenerife bishop’s “obsession” against the LGTBI+ collective that causes “negative feelings and low self-esteem in many people due to the guilt they may assume” just for freely living their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Cabildo considers that “these statements of hate cannot have a place in a society that has been a model in the fight for the expansion of the rights of LGTBI + people with great references.” The political forces of the Cabildo understand that “the Episcopal Conference must position itself and condemn the words of Bernardo Álvarez.”
The motion summarizes that “the pronouncement of the 21st to apologize, without retracting the content of his statements, “has not satisfied anyone.” To conclude, they recall that in July 2021 the Cabildo unanimously approved a motion that “condemned physical, verbal or symbolic LGBTIphobic violence” and declared Tenerife “territory free of LGBTIphobia.”
