Today in Labor History July 15, 1954: Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco amended their vagrancy law to include LGBTQ people, including punishments of hard labor and detention in concentration camps, where they were routinely subjected to sexual violence. The majority of detainees were working-class gay men and trans women. It was not uncommon to hear upper class and aristocratic gays and lesbians refer to the dictatorship as a “great” historical period. Indeed, Salvador Dali continued to fawn over the fascist dictator until his death, in spite of the fact that Franco executed Dali’s own lover, the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, in the 1930s. And Andre Breton kicked Dali out of the Paris Surrealist Group for his fascist leanings.
Fascism continued in Spain up until Franco’s death, in 1975. Today, however, both Barcelona and Madrid are often described as among the most LGBTQ-friendly cities in the world. In 2005, Spain became one of the first countries in the world to legalize gay marriage. And Madrid’s Pride event is one of the largest in Europe, in spite of the fact that the city remains one of the most politically conservative regions of Spain.
You can see the trailer for Las noches de Tefía, about the concentration camp in the Canary Islands, that Franco used for LGBTQ prisoners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5nk7ikWdUk
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