There are gestures that last just a second. A notebook resting on a table. A bracelet on a wrist during a state funeral. Some glasses with the colors of the rainbow. Small details that might seem insignificant to some, but in politics they have an enormous symbolic weight. Because everyday life also communicates who you are, who you are with, and what causes are a real part of your life.
That is precisely what Pilar Bernabé transmits every time she appears publicly showing, without stridency and without complexes, symbols linked to the LGTBI collective. At the recent Federal Executive Commission of the PSOE, a photograph captured his notebook with the rainbow flag on the table. She had previously been seen wearing an LGTBI bracelet even at a state funeral. And those who know her also know about her glasses with the group’s colors.
They are not improvised marketing campaigns. They are not gestures prepared for a specific Pride day. They are constant signs of a way of understanding politics: visibility matters, respect matters and LGTBI people are a natural part of society, human teams and daily life.
In times where there are still discourses that try to question conquered rights or ridicule diversity, these small gestures acquire enormous value. Because many times the difference between a real ally and a leader who simply poses for a photo is in the coherence of the details.
Bernabé has also built a good part of his public career from an inclusive vision of the city of Valencia. During her time as Sports Councilor she decisively promoted the city’s candidacy to host the Gay Games 2026, one of the largest LGTBI sporting and cultural events in the world. The Valencian candidacy itself defended Valencia as a “diverse, welcoming and plural” city.
His involvement was not merely institutional. He personally participated in the defense of the international project and accompanied the group in the process that culminated in the election of Valencia as the official headquarters. Later, as municipal sports manager, he signed the official commitment with the Federation of Gay Games to hold the event in the city.
During those years he also publicly defended that Valencia should become a benchmark for inclusive sport free of LGTBIphobia. In institutional events together with LGTBI sports clubs in the city, he demanded “very loudly and very clearly” an inclusive and diverse Valencia.
All this is not a coincidence. Those who work closely with Pilar Bernabé know that a large part of her team is made up of LGTBI people and that coexistence with diversity is not a theoretical discourse for her, but an everyday reality. And that is also noticeable in the way he communicates, in how he presents himself publicly and in what symbols he decides to show without fear.
Because politics does not live only in great parliamentary speeches or rallies. He also lives in the details. In what a leader decides to normalize. In that which makes visible even when no one demands it. In a rainbow notebook on an official table. On a bracelet that is not removed during solemn events. In the silent but forceful message of telling the collective: “you are here, you are part of us and there is nothing to hide.”
In a political context where certain sectors have made very controversial statements about the LGTBI community, generating indignation in broad social and progressive spaces, the figure of Pilar Bernabé appears to many as a leader clearly positioned on the side of rights, inclusion and dignity. Faced with those who use diversity as a cultural weapon, Barnabas has opted for closeness, normalization and visible commitment.
For this reason, when talking about real allies of the LGTBI collective in Valencian politics, the name of Pilar Bernabé appears more and more strongly. Not only because of what he says, but because of everything he conveys even when it seems like he is not saying anything.
Because yes: details also make politics.
