“Culture is our way of existing and resisting” María Giralt, vice president of Pride Barcelona

Publicidad

Interview with María Giralt, vice president of Pride Barcelona and social director

At a particularly tense moment for LGTBIQ+ rights in Europe, Pride Barcelona 2025 is presented as much more than a celebration: it is a cultural response, a political affirmation and a collective space of resistance. We spoke with María Giralt, vice president of Pride Barcelona and director of the social sphere, about the challenges, news and demands of this edition, which brings together more than 35 entities around a clear slogan: LGTBIQ+ culture is also universal culture.

This year, Pride Barcelona arrives in a complex political and social context, with advances and setbacks for LGTBIQ+ rights in Europe. How would you define Pride Barcelona 2025 in one sentence? What is your biggest goal this year?

We would like to highlight that Pride Barcelona is made up of more than 35 LGBTQIA+ entities that each year decide the theme, organize the activities and participate in writing the manifesto and reading it. At the same time, the LGBTIQ+ Chamber of Catalonia is the entity in charge of the complex logistical organization of Pride Barcelona.

Publicidad

In response to the question, a few years ago we would have answered that Pride Barcelona is the major festival of diversity. At the current moment, we would add that Pride Barcelona is the demonstration of the commitment of Barcelona and Catalan society to the values ​​of diversity, respect for human rights and democracy. In short, progress.

“Pride Barcelona is made up of more than 35 LGBTQIA+ entities that each year decide the theme, organize the activities and participate in writing the manifesto and reading it”

Each edition usually has a motto or main claim to focus attention on urgent issues for the group. This year it is “LGBTQIA+ Culture: Universal Culture”. Why have you decided to focus on this topic?

Because culture, along with education, last year’s theme, are the two main areas where the extreme right feels most comfortable launching its hate speeches on the networks. Under this motto, Pride Barcelona wanted to express that LGBTQIA+ people have contributed significantly to universal culture, and in this way we want to claim our visibility, and therefore, our existence and our rights.

Many people attend Pride hoping to learn about news and innovative proposals that make the community visible. What new developments would you highlight this year, both in terms of activities and social or cultural focus?

- Publicidad-

People come to Pride Barcelona for different and varied reasons, but they have in common the need to show their proximity, complicity and solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community. During Pride, more than sixty activities related to LGBTQIA+ culture have been carried out for all audiences. We want to show that, despite the violent attacks on our community by ultra-conservative sectors, we will continue to defend our rights even more strongly if possible.

Every year, criticism and debates arise about “pinkwashing” or the commodification of pride. How do you manage the presence of companies to avoid pinkwashing and guarantee that there is a real commitment to LGTBIQ+ rights?

At Pride Barcelona we are the first interested in avoiding being used by possible “pinkwashing” of companies, these companies pass some filters and show their commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community. But what is worrying, as unfair and incoherent, is the a priori demonization just for the fact of being a company. And it is because there is a law that requires companies to take measures to create inclusive work environments for LGBTQIA+ workers. A law, 4/2023, approved thanks to the fight of LGBTQIA+ associations, “for the real and effective equality of trans people and for the guarantee of the rights of LGTBI people”, specifically refers to it in articles 14, 15, 54 and 55 of said law.

The companies that participate in Pride Barcelona tend to be companies that have been managing LGBTIQA+ diversity with good practices for some time, even before Law 4/2023, whether by supporting groups of LGBTQIA+ employees, providing training in LGBTQIA+ diversity, applying bathroom policies and trans-inclusive facilities and contractor/supplier non-discrimination standards, providing public support to the LGBTI community, etc.

At Pride Barcelona and the LGBTQIA+ Chamber we accompany companies on the path towards good management of the company’s LGBTQIA+ diversity, either with training or advising them to carry out their LGBTQIA+ plans, but logically Pride Barcelona cannot “guarantee” that this is the case, for this the unions exist, and they do a great job.

But as companies understand that embracing diversity is a beneficial process for the entire company value chain, we will be transforming society almost without realizing it.

“Barcelona has become the paradigm of a city where it is possible to live, work, study and interact freely without hiding your identity or your sexual condition.”

Pride is not only a celebration, it is also a platform for political and social demands. With which entities and movements are you collaborating to reinforce the activist dimension of Pride Barcelona 2025?

One ​​of the characteristics of Pride Barcelona is the balance between vindication, visibility and celebration. Pride Barcelona is made up of more than forty LGBTQIA+ associations and there is a close relationship with the LGBTI Platform of Catalonia, with which we collaborate to carry out protest actions, as well as with entities that work in other areas such as functional diversity.

Safety and accessibility are key aspects so that everyone can enjoy the event. What measures have you implemented this year to guarantee the accessibility and safety of attendees, especially the most vulnerable?

This year we will also have an area for people with reduced mobility and sign language for deaf people that will be projected in a corner of the main screen, in addition to accommodating deaf people near the stage.

The participation of the trans, racialized, migrant and disabled community continues to be an outstanding debt in many events. What specific actions have been taken this year to make these people’s voices visible and center within Pride?

The trans, racialized, migrant and disabled community has long been fully integrated within the Pride Barcelona associations. The Pride Barcelona Volunteer Team welcomes many trans volunteers, people of different ethnicities, migrants, people with disabilities who create emotional and social bonds and are a key piece for the good development of Pride Barcelona. I remember the comment of a gay volunteer from El Salvador as he watched the thousands of people in front of the stage, “Look, I became a Pride volunteer to give back to Barcelona what it had given me.” This, honestly, is priceless.

Pride generates an important economic and social impact on the city. What impact do you hope this edition will have for the local economy and the businesses of the LGTBIQ+ community in Barcelona?

We aspire for it to have a great social impact. And the economic impact comes naturally. Many businesses from the LGBTQIA+ community participate in Village Pride alongside LGBTQIA+ entities, bars and clubs in the city fill up during the Pride celebration and this has an impact on the local economy.

Looking toward the future, it is key to think about the evolution of pride celebrations. How do you imagine Pride Barcelona in 5 or 10 years? What challenges do you think we must overcome as a society to get there?

For now we have enough to imagine this year’s Pride. The Barcelona Pride of the future will be the one that LGBTQIA+ associations want. The main challenge is to overcome the crisis of human values ​​that the extreme right is leading us to and avoid a return to totalitarian caves.

And the most worrying thing, the affinity of a part of the youth to fascist and dictatorial approaches, and which they show without any complex. Do you see why the extreme right puts its claws in education and culture?

Barcelona has a long history of struggle and visibility of the LGTBIQ+ collective, although it still faces important challenges. What steps is the city taking to consolidate its candidacy for World Pride 2030 and project itself as an international benchmark?

Due to the latest political events on a global scale, Barcelona, ​​which was already a reference in terms of LGBTQIA+ rights, has become the paradigm of a city where it is possible to live, work, study and interact freely without hiding your identity or your sexual condition. The key is in collaboration between civil society and administrations.

The Barcelona City Council has shown from the beginning its firm support for the presentation of Barcelona’s candidacy as the venue for World Pride 2030. The Generalitat of Catalonia and the Provincial Council of Barcelona have joined with the same enthusiasm. We have been working for months in a coordinated manner with the three administrations, Tourism of Barcelona and Tourism of Catalonia, in the development of the candidacy.

The strength of a candidacy like World Pride does not depend only on institutional support, but also on the commitment of civil society. How are you integrating LGTBIQ+ entities in the development of the project and what role do they play in this joint proposal?

Barcelona also has a long associationist tradition thanks to the self-management movement, unknown to many, but studied in American and European universities. It is no coincidence that the first LGBTI demonstration on Las Ramblas in Barcelona in 1977 was so transversal.

In fact, we do not have to integrate LGBTQIA+ entities because they are Pride Barcelona, ​​they were the first to be consulted and unanimously showed their support for the presentation of the candidacy.

Rainbow Questions

• Who is your queer reference and why? Now we are all references for everyone.
• If your life had an activist slogan embroidered on a t-shirt, what would it be? Live without fear, although I prefer it engraved in my brain.
• When did you feel freest in your skin? Now and always.
• Which everyday queer superpower do you stick with? …What if it turned out that we didn’t have superpowers?

Pride Barcelona 2025 is not only a celebration of diversity: it is a declaration of cultural, political and emotional resistance. Thanks to the commitment of entities such as the LGTBIQ+ Chamber and voices like María Giralt, it is consolidated as a key event on the international map. And perhaps most importantly: it is still a mirror in which to look at oneself and a space where it is not necessary to ask permission to exist.