Hundreds of thousands of people waved rainbow flags and danced to techno music at the Pride march in Madrid on Saturday as the event returned after two years of Covid-enforced cancellations.
Demonstrators in the Spanish capital gathered behind a large banner reading “Visibility, Pride and Resilience” late in the afternoon.
Some participants carried water guns and splashed each other to cool off in the scorching heat. Others went shirtless and danced to the rhythm of Brazilian and techno music.
They were joined by several ministers in Spain’s left-wing coalition government, including Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
“I missed it a lot, the atmosphere is great. You can see that people really wanted to celebrate after such a long time without a ‘normal’ Pride,” said Victor Romero Fernandez, a 38-year-old teacher.
Official Miguel Angel Alfonso, 44, appreciated seeing crowded streets but felt the event should place more emphasis on demanding rights.
“It’s become a big party, with floats turned into discos and multinationals… it’s big business,” he said.
The public broadcaster TVE broadcast the event live for the first time.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in Spain in 1978, three years after the death of dictator Francisco Franco. Since then, the country has legalized marriage and adoption for same-sex couples.
However, the national LGBTQ association said it was important to give the community “visibility” and denounced increasing “hate speech” in a statement ahead of the march.
FELGTBI+ added that such a discourse “undermines the foundations of social harmony and jeopardizes the achievements made so far”.
The association also backed a bill, due to be debated in Parliament this summer, that would allow people aged 16 and over to change their name and gender on identity documents of their own choosing.
If passed, the law would make Spain one of the few countries to allow gender self-determination.
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