Cancellation of the Pride Festival in Valencia
The LGBT Festival in Valencia has been canceled for the first time in 36 years, since the Lambda collective, as the leading LGBTI organization in the city, organizes a Pride, including a demonstration and an afterparty, in Valencia.
There will be no legendary party at the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. This decision was made "after attempts by the state administration to control the LGBT organization.
"We are experiencing a situation unprecedented in history where meetings, conversations and contacts are accompanied by what we consider threats, coercion and constant rudeness." "We began to learn about the curtailment of LGBTI rights by various governments formed by the right and the extreme right. All of this supports the decision we made today."
Lambda and Ageval against interference by the generalitat
For this reason, the Valencian Pride Festival of 2024 has been suspended, but protest demonstrations will continue. Thus, on Friday, June 28, the Valencia Pride 2024 demonstration will take place, which will keep the same route as in other years, as well as the same festive atmosphere. Platforms, colors, parties and demands will once again flood the streets of the city center. However, the demonstration will end with a protest rally in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Valencia.
The LGBT associations Lambda and Ageval, as well as the state federation FELGTBI+, declared the “excessive interference” of the Valencian generalitat in the organization of the holiday and attempts to “usurp” it in order to benefit from the festival as an “empty tourist brand.” The conflict is aggravated by the infringement of LGBTQ+ rights in Valencia in general – recently, there have been no lessons on the diversity of sexual behavior in the schools of the autonomous community, but books for children are censored “under the pretext of combating pornography”, the Infosex service of the city council has been abolished
At the same time, the activists noted that they would not “expose the government agencies of Valencia,” but would voice their demands at a rally in front of the city hall on June 28 immediately after the Parade – instead of the canceled festival after-party.