- The City Council will involve the clubs in the prevention of sexist assaults and LGTBI-phobic behaviors during the September festivities.
- The practical training will take place on September 2 at 18:00 in the municipal plenary hall.
- The participating clubs will have reference persons, a badge, and wristbands against chemical submission.
The parties without LGTBIphobia are the goal of “Fem Penya,” the campaign presented on August 25 by the Equality Area of Almenara. The municipality of Castellón will train its clubs before the patron festivities in September to recognize assaults, prevent risks, and support victims with safety and respect.
The clubs become part of the prevention
The campaign is based on a concrete reality: the clubs and their venues are central spaces for gathering, coexistence, and fun during the festivities, but situations of harassment, sexual assaults, or LGTBI-phobic behaviors can also occur in them.
The City Council proposes to directly involve those who organize and inhabit those spaces. The initiative aims for the clubs to have trained reference persons to prevent violence and act in the event of a possible assault. In this way, responsibility is not solely concentrated on public services or an external attention point.
The chosen message is unequivocal: “Not everything goes at parties”. The campaign reminds that the festive atmosphere does not justify sexist comments, intimidation, non-consensual touching, sexual assaults, or LGTBI-phobic behaviors. Consent, freedom, equality, and respect remain valid within a venue, on the street, or during a night celebration.
The approach links prevention to the ability to recognize what is happening. Identifying a discriminatory behavior or a situation of harassment is the first step to respond, but the campaign also incorporates criteria for listening and accompanying without increasing risk.
A training designed for the festive context
The session “Formació Punt Violeta + Punt Divers” will take place on September 2 at 18:00 in the plenary hall of the Almenara City Council. It is specifically aimed at the clubs and adapts its content to the scenarios typical of the patron festivities.
The training will address the identification of macho violence, harassment, and sexual assaults; the recognition of discriminatory and LGTBI-phobic behaviors; the prevention of risks in venues and other festive spaces, and the guidelines for action when someone witnesses or suffers an assault.
It will also teach how to listen, accompany, and support without putting oneself at risk, in addition to explaining the available resources. This combination is relevant because it avoids limiting the campaign to general messages and offers a course of action for real situations.
The clubs can register via email igualtat@almenara.es or by calling 962 624 801, extension 3094, between 8:00 and 14:00. Those that join will receive a distinctive sticker of the initiative.
Public identification can help locate committed spaces, although its value will depend on the existence of effective training and whether the reference persons know how to activate the appropriate resources. The badge alone does not replace the preparation that constitutes the core of the program.
From the attention point to a network within the party
The combination of a Punt Violeta and a Punt Divers connects the prevention of sexual violence with the response to LGTBIphobia. The campaign recognizes that both can appear in the same context and that a useful action needs to understand different types of discrimination.
The declared objective is to create a support network during the festivities. To achieve this, training and collective involvement are presented as inseparable elements. The clubs are not treated merely as recipients of a campaign, but as agents capable of detecting, preventing, and referring situations.
The distribution of wristbands against chemical submission adds another preventive resource for participants. The City Council has not presented the wristbands as a substitute for vigilance, attention, or accompaniment, but as one of the materials linked to adherence.
The campaign is aimed at the patron festivities in September, so the calendar leaves a week between the training session and the start of the festive period. The practical utility will depend on how many clubs participate, how many reference persons are trained, and how their presence is communicated to the public.
A local policy based on shared responsibility
“Fem Penya” shifts the focus from post-reaction to shared prevention. The initiative does not promise to completely eliminate assaults, but it does aim to improve the ability to recognize them and respond without blaming or leaving the affected person alone.
It also avoids a dangerous idea: that during the festivities, the rules of coexistence are suspended. The slogan reminds that fun does not make acceptable behaviors that violate consent or discriminate based on sexual orientation, identity, or gender expression.
For Revista Rainbow, the campaign offers a verifiable example of how a municipality can work with existing community structures. Almenara does not create a network outside of the clubs; it tries to incorporate prevention within the places where much of the festive life takes place.
The result can only be evaluated after the festivities. For now, the measure provides date, content, registration channels, and identifiable resources. This concreteness differentiates an operational campaign from a generic statement and allows the clubs to decide whether to assume a visible commitment against sexist assaults and LGTBIphobia.
