In the middle of LGTBI Pride Month, just beginning to live in this new reality left to us by the COVID-19 pandemic, June 28 arrives.
At this moment in which the massive street celebrations are not yet possible, the community has turned to reacting with great doses of imagination and creativity, filling towns, cities and institutions with "rainbow" symbols and colors, showing, with more strength and determination than ever, through balconies, streets and networks, that there is no virus of any kind - neither biological nor social - capable of stopping what is already an unstoppable process, the recognition and equal rights of all LGTBI people.
It is exciting to see how neighbors of towns as small as Villanueva de Algaidas, in Malaga, react to a complaint demanding the removal of the rainbow flag from the facade of the Town Hall, flooding the windows and balconies of the town's houses with hundreds of flags.
Or how a group of 14 women, in Aguilar de la Frontera, in Córdoba, have woven a multicolored crochet flag of more than 500 meters during confinement, as a large awning, which today covers one of the main streets of the town, celebrating LGTBI pride. Or even, the gesture of the Civil Guard, which on its Twitter account has joined the celebration of 'Pride' showing the rainbow flag on its profile.
In the Canary Islands we are also experiencing a beautiful and peaceful explosion of rainbow manifestations in all areas, from the most popular, in rural and urban environments, media to the most institutional, organized by city councils, councils and the Government of the Canary Islands.
Also in Parliament this week we have echoed the importance of making visible and celebrating pride, this time with the best possible institutional declaration, approving in the plenary session of June 23, by consensus and with the unanimity of all political groups, the consideration of our future Law of Social Equality and Non-Discrimination on Grounds of Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sexual Characteristics.
A necessary and avant-garde Law in the recognition of rights, with an updated and intersectional regulatory framework, broad and inclusive, which not only recognizes, but also comprehensively regulates the right to the free determination of the identity and gender expression of every person, through a set of measures aimed at guaranteeing its full exercise in all areas of society, health, education, labor, social, family, cultural, leisure and sports, during all stages of life.
A text that includes the modifications and guidelines introduced by the Statute of the Canary Islands and the new laws of Social Services of the Canary Islands, Sports of the Canary Islands, Cultural Heritage of the Canary Islands, Libraries of the Canary Islands, Historical Memory of the Canary Islands and Recognition and Moral Reparation of the Canarian Victims of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship.
We are facing a law of great importance for the entire Canarian society, for the LGTBI community, and within it, for the most discriminated and excluded groups, trans and intersex people, the most punished and with the highest rates of suffering.
A law that overcomes old prejudices and defends depathologization, the right to self-determination and free will.
A law that does justice because it recognizes human rights to people who have historically been denied them, and the history of humanity, sooner or later, takes the side of just causes, as happened with slavery, an undoubtedly unjust institution, which after much suffering and struggle of centuries, ended up being abolished.
In the Canary Islands we are taking a great step in that direction, because when reason is on our side, when reason assists us -and this is the case- despite the resistance of some retrograde sectors fortunately not present in our Parliament, the laws evolve, widen their margins and expand rights.
And what we are very clear about, and that is why we defend it with serenity and enormous joy, without any doubt, is that the extension of universal rights towards historically oppressed, marginalized, or excluded groups, far from subtracting any right from anyone, is an act of justice that strengthens democracies, and makes all humanity greater.
From Sí Podemos Canarias, as a parliamentarian, and from the Secretariat of Feminism and LGTBI Rights of Podemos Canarias, I want to thank the effort of all the LGTBI groups that have worked and agreed on this bill whose processing we have approved in Parliament.
Very proud of the groups, of the Canarian society that supports them, and of all the parliamentary groups that on this occasion have been up to the task and have represented all of us, all, and all, without exclusion.
María del Río Sánchez
Secretary of Feminism and LGTBI Rights of Podemos Canarias
President of the Sí Podemos Canarias Parliamentary Group
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