Yesterday, the University of La Laguna (ULL) commemorated the International LGBTIQ+ Pride Day, which is celebrated every June 28. The steps of the Central Building of the center hosted an institutional act that was attended by various entities and activists from Tenerife, representatives of public institutions and members of the government team and the faculties of the ULL.
The rector Rosa Aguilar who highlighted the importance that this celebration has for the ULL, since from its statutes it affirms to be a public institution that recognizes the plurality of the people that integrate it.
Aguilar explained the historic fighting spirit of LGTBIQ+ activism and lamented that, in the middle of 2022, there are people who “still consider that it is a second-class group.” For this reason, he pointed out that the duty of the University of La Laguna is to help this group and that one way to do it is to make it visible and promote institutional support measures, such as the creation of the LGTBIQ+ Cultural Classroom or the drafting of the Regulation of attention to the diversity effective from 2020.
The act was organized by said LGTBIQ+ Diversity Cultural Classroom whose director, Antonio Adelfo Delgado, gave the floor to those present. María Dolores Morera, director of the Secretariat for External Internships and Accommodation, and Sergio Siverio, professor at the Faculty of Law and deputy director of the organizing cultural classroom, read a manifesto prepared by the Network of Universities for Diversity. The manifesto ratified the commitment to the rights of the LGTBIQ+ collective and the rejection of any form of discrimination.
Subsequently, the student Lola Márquez read a poem by the Chilean poet Claudia Rodríguez, while the Philology Theater Group presented a monologue in which corrective violations were addressed, those sexual assaults to which lesbians are subjected in retaliation for their sexual condition. The group recalled that there are 69 countries in which these hate crimes cannot be reported, and the group and the 11 that punish it with death continue to be persecuted.
Those responsible for the Vice-Rectorate for Students and Employability held a meeting with representatives of the island’s groups, to assess the challenges posed by the application of the Regulation for attention to gender diversity and support for trans students.
