LGBT rights in Spain

This bust of Hispanic Roman Emperor Hadrian, lover of the boy Antinous, can be found today in the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome.

The Romans brought, as with other aspects of their culture, their sexual morality to Spain.[5] Romans were open-minded about their relationships, and sexuality among men was commonplace. Among the Romans, bisexuality seems to have been perceived as the ideal. Edward Gibbon mentions, of the first fifteen emperors, "Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct" – the implication being that he was the only one not to take men or boys as lovers. Gibbon based this on Suetonius' factual statement that "He had a great passion for women, but had no interest in men."[6] Suetonius and the other ancient authors actually used this against Claudius. They accused him of being dominated by these same women and wives, of being uxorious, and of being a womaniser.

Marriages between men occurred during the early Roman Empire. These marriages were condemned by law in the Theodosian Code of Christian emperors Constantius and Constans on 16 December 342.[7] Martial, a first-century poet, born and educated in Bílbilis (now Calatayud in Aragon, Spain), but spent most of his life in Rome, attests to same-sex marriages between men during the early Roman Empire.[8] He also characterised Roman life in epigrams and poems. In a fictitious first person, he talks about anal and vaginal penetration, and about receiving fellatio from both men and women. He also attests to adult men who played passive roles with other men. He describes, for example, the case of an older man who played the passive role and let a younger slave occupy the active role.[9]

The first recorded marriage between two men occurred during the reign of Emperor Nero, who is reported to have married two other men on different occasions.[10] Roman Emperor Elagabalus is also reported to have done the same. Emperors who were universally praised and lauded by the Romans such as Hadrian and Trajan openly had male lovers, although it is not recorded whether or not they ever married their lovers. Hadrian's lover, Antinuous, received deification upon his death and numerous statues exist of him today, more than any other non-imperial person.

Among the conservative upper Senatorial classes, status was more important than the person in any sexual relationship. Thus, Roman citizens could penetrate non-citizen males, plebeian (or low class) males, male slaves, boys, eunuchs and male prostitutes just as easily as young female slaves, concubines and female prostitutes. However, no upper class citizen would allow himself to be penetrated by another man, regardless of age or status. He would have to play the active role in any sexual relationship with a man.[11] There was a strict distinction between an active homosexual (who would have sex with men and women) and a passive homosexual (who was regarded as servile and effeminate). This morality was in fact used against Julius Caesar, whose allegedly passive sexual interactions with the King of Bithynia, Nicomedes, were commented everywhere in Rome.[12] However, many people in the upper classes ignored such negative ideas about playing a passive role, as is proved by the actions of the Roman emperors Nero and Elagabalus.

In contrast to the Greeks, evidence for homosexual relationships between men of the same age exists for the Romans. These sources are diverse and include such things as the Roman novel Satyricon, graffiti and paintings found at Pompeii as well as inscriptions left on tombs and papyri found in Egypt. Generally speaking, however, a kind of pederasty (not unlike the one that can be found among the Greeks) was dominant in Rome. It is important to note, however, that even among straight relationships, men tended to marry women much younger than themselves, usually in their early teens.

Lesbianism was also known,[5] in two forms. Feminine women would have sex with adolescent girls: a kind of female pederasty, and masculine women followed male pursuits, including fighting, hunting and relationships with other women.

Another example is Hadrian,[13] one of the Roman emperors born in Hispania, specifically in Italica (Santiponce today). He was emperor from 117 to 138. He had a famous young lover, Antinous, whom he deified and in whose honour he built the city of Antinoöpolis in Egypt after his death in the Nile.[13]

The first law against same-sex marriage was promulgated by the Christian emperors Constantius II and Constans.[14] Nevertheless, the Christian emperors continued to collect taxes on male prostitutes until the reign of Anastasius (491–581). In the year 390, Christian emperors Valentinian II, Theodosius I and Arcadius declared homosexual sex to be illegal and those who were guilty of it were condemned to be burned alive in front of the public.[15] Christian Emperor Justinian I (527–565) made homosexuals a scapegoat for problems such as "famines, earthquakes, and pestilences."[16]

As a result of this, Roman morality changed by the 4th century. For example, Ammianus Marcellinus harshly condemned the sexual behaviour of the Taifali, a tribe located between the Carpathian Mountains and the Black Sea which practiced the Greek-style pederasty.[17] In 342, emperors Constans and Constantius II introduced a law to punish passive homosexuality (possibly by castration), to which later in 390 Theodosius I would add death by fire to all passive homosexuals that worked in brothels. In 438, this law was expanded to include all passive homosexuals, in 533 Justinian punished any homosexual act with castration and death by fire, and in 559 this law became even more strict.[18]

Three reasons have been given for this change of attitude. Procopius, historian at Justinian's court, considered that behind the laws were political motivations, as they allowed Justinian to destroy his enemies and confiscate their properties, and were hardly efficient stopping homosexuality between ordinary citizens.[17] The second reason, and perhaps the more important one, was the rising influence of Christianity in the Roman society, including the Christian paradigm about sex serving solely for reproduction purposes.[18] Colin Spencer, in his book Homosexuality: A History, suggests the possibility that a certain sense of self-preservation in the Roman society after suffering some epidemic such as the Black fever increased the reproductive pressure in individuals. This phenomenon would be combined with the rising influence of Stoicism in the Empire.[17]

Until the year 313, there was no common doctrine about homosexuality in Christianity,[17] but it is the mistaken belief that Paul had already condemned it as contra natura, though he had no exegetical reason for doing so:

And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. Bible King James. Romans 1:27.

Eventually, the Church Fathers created a literary corpus in which homosexuality and sex were condemned most energetically, fighting against a common practice in that epoch's society.[19] On the other hand, homosexuality was identified with heresy, not only because of the pagan traditions, but also due to the rites of some gnostic sects or Manichaeism, which, according to Augustine of Hippo, practised homosexual rites.[17]

The Germanic peoples had little tolerance for both passive homosexuality and women, whom they considered on the same level as "imbeciles" and slaves, and glorified the warrior camaraderie between men. However, there are reports in Scandinavian countries of feminine and transvestite pastors, and the Nordic gods, the Æsir, including Thor and Odin, obtained arcane recognition drinking semen.[17]

In the Early Middle Ages, attitudes toward homosexuality remained constant. There are known cases of homosexual behaviour which did not receive punishment, even if they were not accepted. For example, King Clovis I on his baptism day confessed to having relationships with other men; or Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon poet whose verses and letters contain homoerotism.[17]

One of the first legal corpus that considered male homosexuality a crime in Europe was the Liber Iudiciorum (or Lex Visigothorum).[20] The Visigoth law included in that code (L. 3,5,6) punished sodomy with banishment and castration. Within the term "castration" were included all sexual crimes considered unnatural, such as male homosexuality, anal sex (heterosexual and homosexual) and zoophilia. Lesbianism was considered sodomy only if it included phallic aids.[20]

It was King Chindasuinth (642–653) who dictated that the punishment for homosexuality should be castration. Such a harsh measure was unheard of in Visigoth laws, except for the cases of Jews practising circumcision. After being castrated, the culprit was given to the care of the local bishop, who would then banish him. If he was married, the marriage was declared void, the dowry was returned to the woman and any possessions distributed among his heirs.[21]

The Muslims who invaded and successfully conquered the peninsula in the early 8th century had a noticeably more open attitude to homosexuality than their Visigothic predecessors. In the book Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia, Daniel Eisenberg describes homosexuality as "a key symbolic issue throughout the Middle Ages in Iberia", stating that in al-Andalus, homosexual pleasures were indulged in by the intellectual and political elite. There is significant evidence for this. Rulers, such as Abd-ar-Rahman III, Al-Hakam II, Hisham II, and Al Mu'tamid ibn Abbad, openly kept male harems, to the point that, to ensure an offspring, a girl had to be disguised as a boy to seduce Al-Hakem II.[22] It was said that male prostitutes charged higher fees and had a higher class of clientele than did their female counterparts. Evidence can also be found in the repeated criticisms of Christians and especially the abundant poetry of homosexual nature. References to both pederasty and love between adult males have been found. Although homosexual practices were never officially condoned, prohibitions against them were rarely enforced, and usually there was not even a pretense of doing so. Sexual activity between men was not seen as a form of identity. Very little is known about lesbian sexual activity during this period.

By 1492, the last Islamic kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, the Emirate of Granada, was invaded and conquered by the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon. This marked the Christian unification of the Iberian peninsula and the return of repressive Catholic morality. By the early sixteenth century, royal codes decreed death by burning for sodomy and was punished by civil authorities. It fell under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition only in the territories of Aragon, when, in 1524, Clement VII, in a papal brief, granted jurisdiction over sodomy to the Inquisition of Aragon, whether or not it was related to heresy. In Castile, cases of sodomy were not adjudicated, unless related to heresy. The tribunal of Zaragoza distinguished itself for its severity in judging these offences: between 1571 and 1579 more than 100 men accused of sodomy were prosecuted and at least 36 were executed; in total, between 1570 and 1630 there were 534 trials and 102 executions.[23] This does not include, however, those normally executed by the secular authorities.

In 1812, Barcelona was annexed into the First French Empire and incorporated into the First French Empire as part of the department Montserrat (later Bouches-de-l'Èbre–Montserrat), where it remained until it was returned to Spain in 1814. During that time same-sex sexual intercourse was legal in Barcelona.[24][25]

Marcela and Elisa got married in 1901 in A Coruña, with Elisa adopting a male name and appearance in order to pass as a man. Their marriage certificate was never annulled.

In 1822, the Kingdom of Spain's first penal code was adopted and same-sex sexual intercourse was legalised. In 1928, under the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, the offense of "habitual homosexual acts" was recriminalised in Spain.[26]

In 1932, same-sex sexual intercourse was again legalised in Spain.[26]

Lucía Sánchez Saornil, anarcha-feminist lesbian poet and activist founder of Mujeres Libres

At the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the gay poet Federico García Lorca was executed by Nationalist forces.[27] Between 1936 and 1939, right-wing, Catholic forces lead by General Francisco Franco took over Spain, and Franco was dictator of the country until his death in 1975. Legal reforms in 1944 and 1963 punished same-sex sexual intercourse as "scandalous public behavior." In 1954, vagrancy laws were modified to declare that homosexuals are "a danger", equating homosexuality with proxenetism (procuring). The text of the law declared that the measures "are not proper punishments, but mere security measures, set with a doubly preventive end, with the purpose of collective guarantee and the aspiration of correcting those subjects fallen to the lowest levels of morality. This law is not intended to punish, but to correct and reform". However, the way the law was applied was clearly punitive and arbitrary: police would often use the vagrancy laws against suspected political dissenters, using homosexuality (actual or perceived) as a way to go around the judicial guarantees.[28][29]

However, in other cases, the harassment of gay, bisexual and transgender people was clearly directed at their sexual mores, and homosexuals (mostly men) were sent to special prisons called galerías de invertidos ("galleries of inverts"). Thousands of homosexual men and women were jailed, put in camps, or locked up in mental institutions under Franco's dictatorship, which lasted for 36 years until his death in 1975.[30] The year Franco died, his regime began to give way to the current constitutional democracy, but in the early 1970s gay prisoners were overlooked by political activism in favour of more "traditional" political dissenters. Some gay activists deplored the fact that reparations were not made until 2008.[31]

However, in the 1960s, a clandestine gay scene began to emerge in Barcelona, and in the countercultural centers of Ibiza and Sitges (a town in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, that remains a highly popular gay tourist destination). In the late 1960s and the 1970s, a body of gay literature emerged in Catalan.[32] Attitudes in greater Spain began to change with the return to democracy after Franco's death through a cultural movement known as La Movida Madrileña. This movement, along with growth of the gay rights movement in the rest of Europe and the Western world, was a large factor in making Spain today one of Europe's most socially tolerant places.

In 1970, Spanish law provided for a three-year prison sentence for those accused of same-sex sexual intercourse.[33]

Same-sex sexual intercourse was again legalised in Spain in 1979, and is its status today.[34]

In December 2001, the Spanish Parliament pledged to wipe clean the criminal records of thousands of gay and bisexual men and women who were jailed during Franco's regime. The decision meant that sentences for homosexuality and bisexuality were taken off police files.[35] Further reparations were made in 2008.[31]

Hate speech on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity has been banned since 1995.[62] Additionally, under the country's hate crime law, crimes motivated by the victim's sexual orientation or gender identity, amongst other categories, result in additional legal penalties.

The Secretary of State for Security reported that instances of violence against LGBT people decreased 4% in 2018.[75] This contrasted with figures from other sources. The Observatorio Madrileño reported a 7% increase in anti-LGBT violence in Madrid,[76] while the Observatory Against Homophobia of Catalonia (Observatori contra l'Homofòbia) reported a 30% increase in the first few months of 2019.[77]

Since January 2019, teachers and students in Madrid are obliged to report cases of bullying, including against LGBT students.[78]

Jacinto Benavente, Nobel Prize in Literature

Federico García Lorca in 1932

At the beginning of the 20th century, Spanish authors, like Jacinto Benavente, Pedro de Répide and Antonio de Hoyos y Vinent, had to choose between ignoring the subject of homosexuality or representing it negatively. The only authors publishing literature with LGBT content were foreigners: Augusto d'Halmar from Chile published Pasión y muerte del cura Deusto, Alfonso Hernández Catá from Cuba published El ángel de Sodoma, and Alberto Nin Frías from Uruguay published La novela del renacimiento y otros relatos, La fuente envenenada, Marcos, amador de la belleza, Alexis o el significado del temperamento Urano and, in 1933, Homosexualismo creador, the first essay representing homosexuality in a positive light.[105]

Others, such as the authors of the Generation of '27, took refuge in poetry. The gay and bisexual poets of this literary movement were amongst the most influential in Spanish literature: Federico García Lorca, Emilio Prados, Luis Cernuda, Vicente Aleixandre and Manuel Altolaguirre. These poets were highly influenced by the great gay authors of the rest of Europe, such as Oscar Wilde, André Gide, mainly his Corydon, and Marcel Proust. In 1930, Emilio García Gómez also published his Poemas arabigoandaluces, which included the pederastic poets of Al-Andalus.[105] Around the mid-1930s, there was a slight liberalisation which ended with the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. After the Civil War, with García Lorca assassinated and the majority of gay and bisexual poets in exile, gay culture retired anew to the cryptic poetry of Vicente Aleixandre, who never admitted his homosexuality publicly. Other gay poets of this period are Francisco Brines, Leopoldo María Panero, Juan Gil-Albert and Jaime Gil de Biedma and, in Córdoba, Vicente Núñez, Pablo García Baena and Juan Bernier, belonging to the Cántico group.[105]

Authors that appear after the Spanish Transition include Juan Goytisolo, Luis Antonio de Villena, Antonio Gala, Terenci Moix, Álvaro Pombo, Vicente Molina Foix,[106] Antonio Roig, Biel Mesquida, Leopoldo Alas, Vicente García Cervera, Carlos Sanrune, Jaume Cela, Eduardo Mendicutti, Miguel Martín, Lluis Fernández, Víctor Monserrat, Alberto Cardín, Mariano García Torres, Agustín Gómez-Arcos,[105] Óscar Esquivias,[107] Luisgé Martín and Iñaki Echarte.

No lesbian authors in Spain publicly acknowledged their homosexuality until the 1990s. Gloria Fuertes never wanted her sexual orientation to be public. The first lesbian author to be openly gay was Andrea Luca. Other authors who have treated love between women in their books include Ana María Moix, Ana Rosetti, Esther Tusquets, Carmen Riera, Elena Fortún, Isabel Franc and Lucía Etxebarría, whose novel Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes won the Nadal Prize in 1998.[105]

Bibiana Fernández, a Spanish transgender actress

Early representation of homosexuality in Spanish cinema was difficult due to censorship by the Franco regime. The first movie that shows any kind of homosexuality, very discreetly, was Diferente, a musical from 1961, directed by Luis María Delgado. Up to 1977, if homosexuals appeared at all, it was to ridicule them as the "funny effeminate faggot".[108]

During the Spanish transition to democracy, the first films appeared where homosexuality was not portrayed in a negative way. Examples are La Muerte de Mikel from Imanol Uribe and Ocaña, retrat intermitent from Ventura Pons. In these films, authors experiment with different visions of gay men: the transvestite in Un hombre llamado Flor de Otoño (1978), the manly and attractive gay man in Los placeres ocultos (1976) from Eloy de la Iglesia, the warring "queen" in Gay Club (1980), etc. Homosexuality is the center of the plot, and homosexuals are shown as vulnerable, in inner turmoil and in dispute with society.[108]

Beginning in 1985, homosexuality loses primacy on the plot, in spite of still being fundamental. This trend begins with La ley del deseo (1987) from Pedro Almodóvar and continues with films like Tras el cristal (1986) from Agustí Villaronga, Las cosas del querer (1989) and Las cosas del querer 2 (1995) from Jaime Chávarri.[108] Successful films include Perdona bonita, pero Lucas me quería a mí (1997), Segunda piel (1999), Km. 0 (2000), Plata quemada (2000), Los novios búlgaros (2003) and Cachorro (2004).

Undoubtedly, Spain's most known LGBT person is Pedro Almodóvar. Almodóvar has often intertwined LGBT themes in his plots, and his films have turned him into one of the most renowned Spanish movie directors. Apart from Almodóvar, Ventura Pons and Eloy de la Iglesia are two film directors who have worked on more LGBT themes in their movies.[108] In September 2004, movie director Alejandro Amenábar publicly announced his homosexuality.

There have not been as many Spanish films with a lesbian plot. The most renown may be the comedy A mi madre le gustan las mujeres (2002), and the romantic drama Room in Rome (Habitación en Roma) (2010).

The most-important LGBT film festivals are LesGaiCineMad in Madrid and the Festival internacional de cinema gai i lèsbic de Barcelona (FICGLB). There are also many other smaller festivals and shows, including Festival del Mar in the Balearic Islands, Festival del Sol in the Canary Islands, Zinegoak in Bilbao, LesGaiFestiVal in Valencia or Zinentiendo in Zaragoza.[109]

In 2018, Ángela Ponce became the first transgender woman to win the Miss Universe Spain title,[110] and was the first transgender woman to contest for Miss Universe 2018.[111]

Special illumination of the Auditorio Kursaal in San Sebastián for Pride Day

During Franco's dictatorship, musicians seldom made any reference to homosexuality in their songs or in public speeches. An exception was the copla singer Miguel de Molina, openly homosexual and against Franco. De Molina fled to Argentina after being brutally tortured and his shows prohibited.[112] Another exception was Bambino, whose homosexuality was known in flamenco circles. Some songs from Raphael, as "Qué sabe nadie" ("What does anyone know") or "Digan lo que digan" ("Whatever they say"), have frequently been interpreted in a gay light.[113]

In 1974, the folk rock band Cánovas, Rodrigo, Adolfo y Guzmán talked about a lesbian relationship in the song "María y Amaranta" ("María and Amaranta"), that surprisingly was not censored. During the transition to democracy, the duo Vainica Doble sung about the fight of a gay man against the prejudices of his own family in the song "El rey de la casa" ("The king of the house").

Singer-songwriter Víctor Manuel has included LGBT subjects in several of his songs. In 1980, he released "Quién puso más" ("Who put more?"), a true love story between two men that ends after 30 years. He later mentioned transsexuality in his song "Como los monos de Gibraltar" ("As the monkeys in Gibraltar"), feminine homosexuality in "Laura ya no vive aquí" ("Laura doesn't live here any more") and bisexuality in "No me llames loca" (Don't call me fool/queen).

It was not until the La Movida Madrileña that homosexuality became visible in Spanish music. The duo Pedro Almodóvar and Fabio McNamara usually dressed as women during their concerts, where they sang provocative lyrics. Tino Casal never hid his homosexuality and became an icon for many gay people. Nevertheless, it would be the trio Alaska, Nacho Canut y Carlos Berlanga who would be identified from the beginning with the LGBT movement due to their constant references to homosexuality in their lyrics and their concerts. During their time as Dinarama, they recorded the song "¿A Quién le Importa?" ("Who cares?"), which became a gay anthem in Spain. After the Movida, several artists continued to make music with homosexual themes, such as Fabio McNamara, Carlos Berlanga in "Vacaciones" ("Holiday"), or Luis Miguélez, ex-guitarist of Dinarama and later member of Glamour to Kill.

At the end of the 1980s, Mecano made a hit with the song "Mujer contra mujer" ("Woman against woman"), clearly defending the love of two women. There were French ("Une femme avec une femme") and Italian ("Per Lei Contro Di Lei") versions. The song was a huge hit in France in 1990 where it reached No. 1 in charts during seven weeks. The song was also a hit in Latin America and is one of the most remembered of the group. They later composed the song "Stereosexual" that talked about bisexuality.[114] In 1988, Tam Tam Go!, in the album "Spanish shuffle", included the song "Manuel Raquel", the only song in Spanish in the album, which told the story of a transsexual. Tino Casal included in his 1989 album Histeria the very explicit song "Que digan misa".

At the beginning of the 1990s, new singer-songwriters also took up the subject, especially Inma Serrano, Javier Álvarez, and Andrés Lewin, but also Pedro Guerra in his song "Otra forma de sentir" ("Another way of feeling") or Tontxu in "¿Entiendes?" ("Do you understand?"). Other artists with diverse styles also used the theme, as "El cielo no entiende" ("Heaven doesn't understand") by OBK, "Entender el amor" ("Understand love") by Mónica Naranjo, "El día de año nuevo" ("New Year's Day") by Amaral, "Eva y María" by Materia Prima, "Sacrifícate" by Amistades Peligrosas, "La revolución sexual" by La casa azul, "Ángeles" by Merche, "Como una flor" by Malú, "Da igual" by Taxi, "El que quiera entender que entienda" by Mägo de Oz, etc.[114]

Indie pop has also treated homosexuality from different points of view, as the band Ellos in the song "Diferentes" ("Different"), or L Kan in "Gayhetera" (Gayhereto). The duo Astrud has been related to gay culture. The leather subculture has the band Gore Gore Gays with themes that range from LGBT demands to explicit sex.[114][115] Within the indie pop universe, many other bands produce songs almost exclusively for a gay public, especially gay-friendly or with a clear gay content (Nancys Rubias, Lorena C, Spunky, La Terremoto de Alcorcón, Putilatex, Putirecords, Borrachas provincianas, Vanity Bear, Modelé Fatale, Dos Hombres Solos, Postura 69, etc.) and some drag queens have a successful career in music, such as La Prohibida, Nacha la Macha, or La Otxoa.

Ada Colau, the openly bisexual Mayor of Barcelona

Several openly gay politicians have served in public office in Spain. One of the most prominent gay politicians is Jerónimo Saavedra, who served as President of the Canary Islands twice from 1982 to 1987 and again from 1991 to 1993. Saavedra came out as gay in 2000. He served as a member of the Senate until 2004, and was Mayor of Las Palmas from 2007 to 2011.[116] Another prominent gay politician and activist was Pedro Zerolo, who served on the City Council of Madrid until his death in June 2015. Zerolo was known for his LGBT activism and was one of the biggest promoters of the law extending the right to marriage to same-sex couples, leading many to label him a gay icon.

Others include Javier Maroto, formerly serving as mayor of the Basque capital of Vitoria-Gasteiz from 2011 to 2015 and currently serving as senator. Maroto married his fiancé José Manuel Rodríguez in September 2015. The marriage ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.[117] Máximo Huerta, Ángeles Álvarez and Fernando Grande-Marlaska are other gay politicians who serve/have served in the Cortes Generales.[118] Grande-Marlaska has served as Minister of the Interior since June 2018.

Ada Colau, elected Mayor of Barcelona in 2015, revealed her bisexuality in December 2017.[119] Other Catalan gay politicians include Antoni Comín, Santi Vila and Miquel Iceta.

Carla Antonelli, Víctor Casco, Iñigo Lamarca, Fran Ferri, Jesús Vázquez Abad, Iñaki Oyarzábal, Empar Pineda and Luis Alegre Zahonero are other openly LGBT politicians, variously serving as mayors or members of regional legislatures.[120] In 2007, Manuela Trasobares won a seat as a councillor in the small Valencian town of Geldo, becoming the first openly transgender Spaniard to hold public office.[121]

Mapi León, lesbian footballer and player in the Spain women's national football team.

Sports is traditionally a difficult area for LGBT visibility. Recently though, there have been professional sportswomen and sportsmen who have come out. These include Mapi León and Ana Romero in football, Víctor Gutiérrez in waterpolo, Carlos Peralta in swimming, Marta Mangué in handball, Javier Raya in figure skating and Miriam Blasco in judo.

In February 2019, the right-wing party Vox vetoed a motion calling for an official stance against homophobia in sports. The motion, supported by every other political party, required unanimity to be adopted.[122]