LGTBI collectives will have, for the first time, a municipal space in which they can debate, train and serve their respective users. It is the first municipal venue dedicated to diversity, “perhaps the first in the Canary Islands,” said the Councilor for Equality of the Santa Cruz City Council, Purificación Dávila, in a visit to this venue located in Santa María del Mar. “We are very satisfied not only because of what it means for the group to have its own space, but also because it will be named after a renowned activist, Marcela Rodríguez, a trans woman who has lived the unspeakable on the way of her transition, and who deserves this recognition ”.
There are six groups that are going to be able to benefit from this space in which, as Dávila explained, “they will be able to meet to interact, and advance in promoting inclusion policies, promoting diversity”. The premises will be multipurpose, so that all groups that have representation in the Equality Council have room. “We (the council) will take care of organizing the use with the preferences that each of the groups send us.”
Dávila considers that this own space will serve for the group to advance in the administrative processes, since, as he acknowledges, in this section “they need support”.
A support that in recent weeks has also become vital given that, according to Dávila, the group has been intimidated by a series of threatening messages that forced the City Council to address the Hate Crimes Unit of the Police National in case there could be a real risk for these people.
“We do not have any proven case that any LGTBI person has been attacked or abused, but it is true that they have suffered threats, we do not know if they are real or unfounded, coinciding in time with the case of Samuel, the young Galician allegedly murdered for being homosexual ”. Dávila explained that, “some groups contacted us worried that wasap was circulating, warning them to be careful because groups were being organized to attack LGTBI people in Santa Cruz.”
After a first meeting to gather information, “I already organized another with the mayor, the Security Councilor, Evelyn Alonso, and with the Hate Crimes Unit of the National Police, a meeting in which we explained what they had to do in case of receiving threats, and above all, knowing how to distinguish the real ones from a hoax ”. As a result, the police presence was reinforced in points such as the Interchange, one of the places to which the messages referred.
