Monument for Gays and Lesbians to be Erected in Barcelona

According to plans, the Spanish city of Barcelona will erect a monument to recognise gays, lesbians and transgendered people who have been persecuted and repressed “throughout history”.

The exact location of the pink, triangular stone monument, which will be unveiled in February, has not been decided yet. A spokesman for the city hall said the city’s most iconic site – the square surrounding Antonio Gaudi’s iconic Sagrada Familia church outside the Sacred Heart – “is one of the locations that has been proposed”, which means that it will be placed right opposite the basilica of the Sagrada Familia.

The iconic Sagrada Familia church

The announcement came just weeks after Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the city’s emblematic Antonio Gaudi-designed church as hundreds of gays and lesbians staged a mass “kiss-in” to protest the Roman Catholic Church’s stance on homosexuality.

As reported, a statement from the City Hall cited that the monument would include the inscription: “In memory of the gays, lesbians and transsexual people who have suffered persecution and repression throughout history. Barcelona 2011.”

The announcement has been welcomed by gay rights campaigners in the city as such a tribute has been demanded for some years by Spain’s LGTB gay rights association. They have sought recognition for historic crimes against gays in the city, especially those committed under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco all the way till his death in 1975. Under the regime of Francisco Franco, gays were shipped off to institutions that some activists had likened to concentration camps. Homosexuality was only legalised shortly after his death in Roman Catholic Spain in 1979.

The Spanish city of Barcelona will erect a monument to gays, lesbians and transgendered people, which is welcomed by gay rights campaigners in the city

The current government, headed by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has sought to promote gay rights as a major part of its liberal social agenda. The country is only the third member of the European, after Belgium and Netherlands, to allow same-sex marriage when the government passed the legislation in 2005. To date, thousands of gay marriages have since been performed in the country.

A picture of gay and lesbian couples rallying in Barcelona in 2005

The announcement has drawn the ire of the Roman Catholic Church and the leader of the opposition Partido Popular in Barcelona has demanded that the decision be reversed. Those in favour including transsexual activists and actress Carla Antonelli have questioned if the Partido Popular is arguing that the persecution and assassination of gays is somehow “less detestable than any other crime” or it is something that the party approves of.

Looking as if it is going to be turned into a huge row, council sources have indicated that the site opposite the basilica has now been ruled out. The city’s Sculpture Commission will soon make the final decision as to where the LGTB monument will be erected.