Celebration and Commemoration, A Taste of Sitges LGTBIQ+ Culture, and some emerging trends

Please note that the English version of the site is translated using artificial intelligence software (https://www.deepl.com/) from Spanish to English. Therefore, there may be grammatical errors present.

Hello everyone!

I hope that you are well. This first week has been crazy, in a good way! I arrived in Sitges, Spain on May 16 in the afternoon and after getting organized in my apartment, I explored the town a bit. The beach is so beautiful and the streets are full of life and magic. In this issue, I present to you some cultural observations and details about my daily life. I also describe a celebration and commemoration event, the Sitges rainbow route, a literary Café with author Manuel Gerardo Sánchez, and a preview of the week ahead.

International Day for the Fight Against LGBTQI+ phobia

Every year, May 17 is the International Day for the Fight Against LGBTQI+phobia. Last Wednesday, the day after my arrival in Sitges, I discovered the organization Colors Sitges Link. According to their website,

Colors Sitges Link (CSL) is a non-profit organization that was created in 2011 to address issues affecting the LGBTQI+ community in Sitges. CSL connects and assists the LGBTQI+ community and friends in Sitges, both residents and visitors, through a series of events and projects run exclusively by volunteers. CSL is recognized by, and works closely with, local authorities and other non-profit organizations. The association's motto is 'The Pride Of Creating Community' and its aim is to make Sitges a better LGBTQI+ place to live or visit.

On this important day for the LGBTQI+ community in Spain, CSL and its volunteers organized an event to celebrate LGTBIQ+ lives and commemorate the people who have lost their lives to hate/LGBTQI+phobia. The event started at the Sitges Town Hall Square and from there the group walked towards the Pink Triangle of Sitges. During the walk/parade, there were many slogans related to the fight against LGBTQI+phobia. Here is a video that highlights some of them:

The parade finally arrived at the Pink Triangle and it was there where the event began. The act consisted of a reading of the press release of ODIO Diario, a movement initiated by the organization FELGTBI+. This organization has asked other organizations and individuals to support their movement and therefore, CSL joined. It is also worth noting that CSL holds most of its events in English, Castellano (Spanish), and Catalan (the regional language of Sitges and Barcelona) all at once. Perhaps the most significant part of the event was the reading of the manifesto. Read in all three languages, it lasted ~30 minutes. You can read the manifesto here in the language of your choice: English, Spanish/Castellano, Catalan. The event ended with a performance by Barda Petarda, a drag performer from here in Catalonia. You can download and watch a video of the performance here.

Rainbow Route

Last Saturday, I attended an event called ‘The Rainbow Route.’ This event is a tour of the city that highlights Sitges' gay history. Here is the flier that publicized this opportunity. One of the very interesting stops was at the first gay bar that existed in Spain (that's what the guide said.) It is now closed because the neighbors complained about the nightly noise from the bar. Here is the now-deserted bar:

I asked the guides if this bar was male-dominated, and they told me that yes, all 'LGTBIQ+' spaces in Sitges are indeed dominated by gay men. It was at this event specifically that I started thinking about trans representation in this town. My main question was, where is this representation? I started thinking about this question because every aspect of LGTBIQ+ culture on the tour was about the history of sexually-dissident men. I was having a casual conversation with a trans guy who doesn't live here in Sitges but has lived in Spain for ~10 years (he's now 22) and he said, "There's not a lot of public representation of trans people like you and me in small Spanish towns." I discussed my research with the other people in the tour group, and some men who were visiting from England told me, "There's not much representation of trans people here. But there is a lot in England, you have to come over to do your research!" I know there are a lot of trans people in Spain. The thing is that trans people congregate in hidden spaces. I learned a lot about the history of Sitges, and the tour was very thought provoking.

Literary Café with Manuel Gerardo Sánchez

On Saturday afternoon, I attended a literary coffee hour with the beloved author Manuel Gerardo Sanchez. He has written a few fictional books about the lives of people who embody sexually-dissident identities and at this event, he shared his latest novel En verano duele más. His talk was full of information about the main character of the book, and I am very excited to read it over the next week. At the event I got a copy that he signed for me <3. One theme that came up during the talk was phallocentricity. That is, the centricity of penises in society. Immediately when he mentioned this topic, I thought of a storefront that I had passed earlier in the week:

There are so many stores like this in Sitges where there are phallic objects without any objects that one might consider as connected to lesbian/trans culture.

Over the coming weeks, I will talk more about the work of Gerardo Sanchez after I have had a chance to read his work. I will also talk about the work of other writers - there is a lot of LGTBIQ+ literary culture here in Sitges!

Next week

There wasn't enough space here to describe everything I learned this week. What I will say is that it was full of adventures, rich conversations, and moments of deep thought. Over the next week, I will focus on finding just where trans folks do gather. Of course I will continue to talk to every person I can, but it is very important to me to highlight the experiences of trans people with this research - that's the goal! There is an article titled Without the Gender Binary that I just found in a local publication thanks to CSL's help. I will be doing a close reading of this piece this week and will present it to you next week. Also, last night, I conducted my first semi-formal/semi-structured interview. You will hear about this interview next week as well ;-).

I would love to hear from you. You can leave me a message in the comments area below, send me an email (hola@mattiebaird.com) or use the contact page through this site.

Thanks for reading, and see you soon!