Palma, proud?

Surprisingly or not, Pride, also known as LGBTI+ Liberation Day, has not been the most discussed celebration in recent years in Palma or the Balearic Islands in general. It seems that the commemoration of the Stonewall riots (the revolt initiated by a group of racialized trans women against police abuses and raids at the bar of the same name) and the fight for sexual and gender liberation that stems from it is a rather accepted date in our society, or at least one that does not bother. Or does it?Palma, for example, had for decades a more or less capital Pride, agreed with entities in this field, and globalized Ibiza has also hosted numerous similar events. In recent years, in addition, Orgullosament Inca has been added, with the involvement of the all-terrain artist Pep Noguera, and Orgull de Felanitx, captained by the tireless Sor Estiércol (artistic name of the multidisciplinary Albert Iglesias), and this will be the second year that Menorca has its own Pride celebration: it will be in Migjorn Gran, thanks to the push of the actor Lluís Febrer.However, it seems that the current governing team of Cort, made up of councilors from the PP and Vox, does not quite like the idea of letting a festival that arises from the people be participated in by the people. Thus, if a few weeks ago it became public that the mythical summer festival of bar Flexas in Parc de la Mar, an unofficial prologue to Pride, would not be held due to the "unviable" conditions imposed by the City Council, it was later known that the Consistory was also not willing to reach an agreement with Ben Amics, the reference entity in the defense of the rights of LGBTI+ people, for the organization of Pride events, and has ended up offering an absolutely innocuous version marked by commercialization.This, in itself, should already be very serious news, considering the rise in LGBTI-phobic aggressions we are suffering (the beating of a married couple in Maioris, in June 2025, the homophobic attack on a teacher from IES Baltasar Porcel in Andratx, last March, the aggressions against a stallholder in the Pere Garau market in April…), but now problems are being added that could have to do with the law: Ben Amics has already announced that it will report the Palma City Council for a "possible influence peddling" in the organization of this year's Pride tourist event, as they have found "possible irregularities" in the contracting process, such as "conflict of interest" and "intervention in administrative contracting".Turning its back on a not insignificant part of its population, the Palma City Council validates the hate speech that Vox has been spreading for too many years. Pride is a civic, revendicative festival, about love and everything that transcends love: identity, health, pleasure, self-determination… With this way of doing things and these traveling companions, one would say that Mayor Martínez is doing more work for Empegueïment than for anything else.