Paula Iglesias (Valencia, 34 years old) has just been elected president of the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transgenders, Bisexuals, Intersexuals and More (Felgtbi+)which brings together 55 entities from all over Spain that fight for the rights of the group. Iglesias, “doctor, psychologist, lesbian, activist and feminist,” is the youngest person to hold the presidency of Felgtbi+ since its foundation in 1992. “The Federation is a reflection of society; a protest speaker for the collective,” he explains. “The essence of this candidacy is to collect the legacy of the previous executive, which has been a lot, but incorporating a younger perspective, new visions and speeches,” he adds.
Iglesias and his team take office for the first time while the trial against the murderers of Samuel Luiz takes place, 24-year-old man, beaten to death on July 3, 2021 shouting “fucking faggot.” And just a few days after the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, was insulted with homophobic insults by a group of students from the University of Navarra, private and linked to Opus Dei. “We live in a bittersweet moment. We have seen how legislative milestones and progress have been achieved (in reference to the Lgtbi+ Law, approved in 2023or to the newly developed regulations on employment equality for people in the group). However, these coexist with a rise in hate speech and the rise of the extreme right,” he summarizes in an interview at the federation headquarters held on Friday, before his candidacy – the only one to present himself – was voted on in the 10th Felgtbi+ congress, which is convened every three years and was held over the weekend at the Marcelino Camacho Auditorium in Madrid.
“Right now, there is a majority society that is respectful of diversity and that has supported legislative advances; and a minority that defends hatred, amplifying it with media and technological speakers that it did not have before.” The data confirms Iglesias’ claims: last year, hate crimes related to gender and identity increased by 21%. “Hate speech is the prelude to crime,” he remarks. Hence, one of his team’s priorities is to advance a State pact against hate speech at all levels: political, labor, social or educational. In fact, one of the offensives of the extreme right since its arrival in the institutions has been the attempt to curtail all types of training in equality, diversity or sexual-affective issues. “There is an instrumentalization of minors, who are used as currency to justify hatred,” Iglesias denounces, “education in diversity from a very early age does not call for them to be part of the group, but to respect people and reduce suffering.”
Another line of action of the mandate that Iglesias inaugurates is the fight against pseudotherapies for the conversion of lgtbi+ people, “and that they are considered Eurocrimes”, or “the union of efforts to stop the European ultra-conservative wave that emanates from countries like Russia” .
-What do you think? The traditional right has sometimes adhered to this exclusive and radical discourse?
-I think they have always been in tune. We cannot forget, the collective does not, that The Popular Party appealed for unconstitutionality to equal marriage. The rise of the extreme right may be leading conservatives to make us the target of their hatred. But it’s something that has always been there.
The current president began activism 15 years ago in Valencia, in the Lambda collective, and has been part of the last board – the last term as vice president -, at the head of which Uge Sangil has been for six years (two terms, the maximum allowed). The team that will accompany Iglesias in the new executive is made up of people who, in addition to being part of the group, live other realities: migrants, people with disabilities, residents in rural environments… “If we allow ourselves to be placed only as members of the group lgtbi+, it will be easier for them to see us from the other side. However, if I show you that we have a lot of similarities and shared problems, that brings us closer and naturalizes lgtbi+ people in society. When I am a migrant and a homosexual or lesbian feminist: What group do I join? How do those realities come together? The lgtbi+ fight may be the answer.”
The objective of the new directive is to collect all these intersections: “Some see them as a threat, since they question their heteropatriarchal and exclusive society model. It is time to make other diversities and identities visible, such as asexuality, bisexuality or non-binary gender.: that makes us stronger.”
However, this attempt to expand the struggle has run into in recent years with a reaction from a sector of feminism that excludes trans women from their struggle. “I don’t like to talk about division because I don’t consider that to be feminism: feminism is inclusive and leaves no woman behind,” says Iglesias. She considers that this movement of exclusive trans women “has generated a lot of noise, but no gap in the movement”: “Feminism and the lgtbi+ struggle have always gone hand in hand and continue to go hand in hand.”
Another issue that has become thorny for the group has been that of surrogacy, although the majority of the couples requesting are heterosexual. “We are always going to defend lgtbi+ families and, of course, the protection of minors because they are the most important thing,” explains Iglesias. “With regard to the practice (surrogacy), the federation does not comment. The Felgtbi+ executive represents 55 entities that do not have a consensus position on the matter. The team is guided by the lines set by the organizations that make up the federation. Until the entities have a consensual position, it will not be part of our strategic lines.”
