Leading the Way: Barcelona's LGBTI Center

A long-standing pioneer of LGBTI rights and culture, Barcelona's very first LGBTI center, dedicated to celebrating and serving the needs of this community, is now just over a year old.

Heady and hedonistic, Sitges has long been the poster child for LGBTI culture in Spain. What’s less well-known is that Barcelona itself boasts a long history of activity and activism. From the daring cabarets of the 1920s to the first rights activists and demos in the 1970s through to the present day, the city has always been firmly at the forefront of Spanish LGBTI culture and movements. 

Barcelona’s LGBTI scene was born and raised in Ciutat Vella, particularly the Raval or barri Xino where meeting places, cabarets, bars and cafés began to appear from the 1920s on, and where many members of the community endured the worst years of repression and criminalization under the dictatorship. Later, in the newly liberated and liberal 1980s, a move into the Eixample Esquerra (aka the “Gaixample”) symbolized greater visibility and respectability. Sadly, that same decade the city also witnessed further firsts: Spain’s first AIDS diagnosis at Vall d’Hebron hospital and the subsequent formation of associations dedicated to fighting it.   

Last year, Barcelona again broke new ground with the inauguration of the LGBTI Center in Sant Antoni. Appropriately located within the colorful new superilla, and a stone’s throw from the legendary El Molino theater, it’s the first multi-functional space of its kind dedicated to serving the needs of the LGBTI community here. The name stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (if you’re wondering why no Q for Queer, feel free to pop into the center and they’ll be happy to debate it with you). 

Since opening its doors in January 2019, the center has hosted over 500 activities, welcomed some 20,000 users and recently celebrated its first birthday during the Sant Antoni festa major. It was set up by the ajuntament in response to demand from various local LGBTI groups and NGOs—some of which go back over 40 years—and is run by the Platform of LGBTI Organizations of Catalunya. The aim is to provide resources and support on a par with cities like New York or Amsterdam and work to uphold LGBTI rights under legislation like lei 11/2014 and the Municipal Plan for Sexual and Gender Diversity 2016-2020. 

To this end, the center provides information, direct care and primary support to LGBTI people, groups and families in coordination with other city public services or LGBTI associations, some of which are now headquartered in the center. Services include counseling; legal; employment; social or health advice and STD testing, including HIV; family care; and assistance for trans and intersex people. The center also has an Emergency Mechanism Against Aggression protocol that kicks in if any of its users are affected and coordinates with various services and anti-discrimination bodies. 

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It also organizes a range of cultural and awareness-raising activities like exhibitions, movie screenings, talks, debates, round tables, conferences, book clubs and creative writing workshops. While the center and its content are geared towards the LGBTI community, it’s an inclusive space open to all and works to build connections with the local community both by welcoming people in and by organizing activities with schools, care homes, centres civics, libraries, etc. Openness and transparency are even built into the design, with large glass windows facing the street. The center’s three floors house a 100-seat auditorium; 50-person multi-purpose space; rooms for meetings or advisory services, training and workshops; dedicated family room; health area; workspace/kitchen; and resources like the Armand de Fluvià Documentation Centre, a large multimedia documentary collection related to sexual, affective and gender diversity.   

Among other resources for those wanting to get settled and set up here, Barcelona International Welcome also organizes an annual LGBTI-focused event, Global Gay Professionals meets once a month, and Barcelona Activa publishes a Guide for guaranteeing LGBTI rights in companies and runs the TransOcupació employment service dedicated to trans people. 

To learn more about Barcelona’s rainbow history in situ, pop in and pick up an urban history map marking the locations of significant events, spaces and memorials across the city. Back in the present day, the center also offers an LGBTI Barcelona map with information for visitors and info about LGBTI association and events like the Fire! and Barcelona International gay & lesbian film festivals; Pride, Circuit and Girlie Circuit festivals; United Bears Barcelona; and Snow Gay Weekend, etc. 

Kate Williams is a freelance writer, editor, translator and Director of The Writer Stuff. She left her native England for Barcelona in 2003 and never looked, or went, back. When she isn’t writing or discovering all the cool stuff going on in the city, she enjoys hiking in the Catalan countryside, kayaking on the Costa Brava, and volunteers at a local animal sanctuary. You can read more by Kate here.