“LGTBI policies are not sectoral policy, they are national policy; and we wouldn’t need to pursue them if we didn’t have to face the far right” says Esquerra MP Jenn Diaz

Esquerra Republicana has introduced a motion in the Parliament of Catalonia reiterating the chamber’s commitment to protecting the rights and freedoms of the LGBTI+ community. The draft also pledges to eradicate LGBTI-phobic discrimination, as well as all hate speech, and places special emphasis on curbing this in Parliament.

“The groups that feed hate speech are out there, and we need to be conscious right here of the fact that their mouthpieces mean to validate violence, legitimize it, and target groups. We have a responsibility to speak out in this Parliament,” said MP Jenn Diaz, who defended the motion.

The draft introduced by the Esquerra parliamentary group urges Catalonia’s Generalitat Government to implement several measures to substantiate its commitment. One example of this is a greater endowment of resources for the Xarxa SAI (Catalonia’s LGBTI Comprehensive Care Service), a network that offers assitance and support for those who have suffered any kind of discrimination due to their sexual orientation or their gender identity or expression, and improved training for its personnel.

“LGTBI policies are not sectoral policy,” Ms Díaz recalled, evoking their transverse importance within government. “It is not a policy for the members of that collective, but a national policy, one that seeks to ensure rights for all, and we wouldn’t need to pursue them if we didn’t have to face male chauvinism, fundamentalism, the far right, racism, class prejudice and the capitalist-patriarchal system,” she added.

Defending LGBTI+ rights is one of the priorities of the feminist transformation, one of the pivots of the Republican government’s plan. Esquerra Republicana thus maintains the line set by the Catalan Law on LGBTI+ Rights passed by Parliament in 2014. The regulation, which was then a pioneer thanks to the incorporation of a system of penalties, was an achievement in the struggle for LGBTI+ freedoms, and included historical demands of the collective.