- The city is left without its emblematic party after the demonstration for the first time since 2009.
- The Nós Mesmas association denounces the loss of the annual subsidy and the demand for unaffordable costs.
- Galicia registers a worrying wave of homophobic attacks in towns such as Vigo, Santiago and Pontevedra.
The Nós Mesmas entity cancels the LGBTIQ+ Pride festival in Vigo this June due to the lack of public financing and the impossibility of assuming the required organizational costs. The group points out the disappearance of municipal financial aid and an increase in institutional bureaucratic obstacles.
The end of a tradition of almost two decades at Porta do Sol
For the first time since 2009, the Olympic city will not have its usual recreational celebration after the protest march. Last year’s event, centralized at Porta do Sol, requires a prior financial investment that the organizing association cannot afford alone in this edition.
”We celebrate Pride with cards from our projects and we continue to recover every day, with our activities. We have these cards thanks to a subsidy we receive every year. But this time they disappear and we can’t add anything,” explains Elisabet Pérez, co-founder of Nós Mesmas.
To the loss of these funds is added a strict list of technical requirements demanded by the City Council of Vigo to authorize the act on public roads, such as the contracting of specific insurance or the installation of approved public bathrooms.
Crossing of accusations between Nós Mesmas and the Council
The management of Nós Mesmas assures that the amount from the Department of Equality that they received, valued at 3,000 euros, eliminated the explicit mention of the LGBTIQ+ group as a priority recipient. Given this scenario, the association decided not to request said aid again to avoid the process of institutional reiteration.
For their part, sources from the municipal entity affirm that the group did not request formal collaboration for this year’s events nor did it attend the calls for 2024 and 2025. The local government maintains that they were always granted the maximum allowed contribution of 3,000 euros when they requested it.
Volunteering crisis and risk of technical closure
The financial situation has placed the association in a position of extreme structural vulnerability. Elisabet Pérez confirms that the lack of generational change and the shortage of active volunteers complicate the management of current social movements. The entity plans to evaluate in September the termination of its workers’ contracts if the situation does not improve.
Despite the suspension of the recreational festival, political mobilization remains intact. On June 28, the traditional peaceful demonstration will be held in commemoration of the Stonewall riots. Collectives such as Avante LGBT+ and Nós Mesmas itself will coordinate a self-managed alternative agenda that will include workshops, historical memory colloquiums and an urban cycling march.
Social alert due to the rise in homophobic attacks in Galicia
This institutional brake coincides with a scenario of tension and physical violence towards dissident identities in the autonomous community. In September, the National Police arrested a man in Vigo for an lgtbiphobic hate crime. Months later, in March, a resident of Pontevedra suffered a broken nose in the heart of the city after being insulted with degrading insults.
Verbal and physical violence has been repeated recently in other Galician capitals. Two weeks ago, a young man reported to the authorities a beating in Santiago de Compostela shouting “fucking bastard.” Likewise, a few days ago, a young woman required medical assistance after receiving a bottle blow to the head accompanied by lesbophobic insults. The cancellation of the LGBTIQ+ Pride festival in Vigo makes visible the lack of protection of a group that demands safe environments for their free development.
