The Plaça Cívica proudly dresses up with the colours of the LGBTI flag

This 17th of May, in the context of the International Day against the LGBTI-phobia, more than a thirty students painted the stairs in the Plaça Cívica with the colours of the rainbow flag.

18/05/2018

At midday there were already students anxious to begin painting the stairs red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. The first to arrive got a T-shirt with the message "Fora la LGTBIfòbia de la UAB" as well.

The activity, organised by the Observatory for Equality and Dinamització Comunitària, reunited more than thirty students who, in addition to painting the stairs, also repainted the pink triangle on the floor of the Plaça Cívica.

In a little more than an hour full of music, pots of painting and brushes, the stairs in the Plaça Cívica were already dressed up with the colours of the LGBTI flag, full of pride. Once the work was done, it was the time for the manifesto written by the SinVergüenza association.

Sara Moreno, Vice-rector for Students and Employability, presented the reading of the manifesto calling for the enforcement of the measures stipulated in the Law 11/2014 to fight against LGBTI-phobia at the university.

Next, Jordi Pereira, from the SinVergüenza association, was responsible for reading the manifesto, written by Judit Sánchez. Pereira made a reference to the advances in this sense over the last years, but highlighted the importance to keep fighting to improve the lives of LGBTI community members.
He remembered the terrible situation that LGBTI people still suffer in many of the world’s countries, where expressing one’s sexual orientation or gender identity is punished with death penalty. But SinVergüenza also wanted to mention the LGBTI-phobic violence that we still suffer at home by remembering the trans teenager Ekai, who committed suicide last February.

Two symbols of the long struggle of the LGBTI community
Since this Wednesday, May 17, The Plaça Cívica houses two symbols of resistance and assertion. They are two symbols that remind about the long history of struggle for human rights: the pink triangle and the rainbow flag.

The pink triangle placed at the middle of the Plaça Cívica is one of the most known emblems of the LGBTI community. Its origin is traced back to nazi Germany, where homosexual prisoners were marked in concentration camps with the pink triangle. The re-appropriation of the pink triangle by the community is a bet for remembrance.

The links of the pink triangle with a past as traumatic as the Holocaust drove a group of activists in San Francisco in the 70s to create an alternative. Gilbert Baker was the designer of the rainbow flag inspired by the song "Over the Rainbow". Baker used his design for the first time during the San Francisco Pride on June 1978, but it was after the demonstration against Harvey Milk's murder, the first member gay of the San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, that the flag began to become mainstream. In a few years, it turned into the most popular symbol of the LGBTI community.