The landing of the far right in several autonomous powers has prompted a whirlwind of insults, if not outright attacks, against the collective at the height of LGTBI Pride month. Vox has filed charges against flying the rainbow flag in public buildings and will in fact not fly in the town halls where it governs alongside the People’s Party. The leader of the Ultra party, Santiago Abascal, reiterated on TVE on Wednesday the constraint that this big celebration entails for them: he recalled that he would not go to the demonstration because he was heterosexual (heterosexual support is not allowed at demonstrations essential around the world). ) and besides, a lot of LGTBI people don’t celebrate it either. Given the homophobic danger in the area, the police have increased the number of officers attending the appointment in Madrid – 3,726 officers will do it, twice as many as last year. One has to go back before equal marriage was approved in 2005 to find such crude and frontal attacks by power and the street on the rights of LGBTI people; A global (and virtual) trend that, following the May 28 elections, is now arriving in Spain with the passion of a half-completed ideological relay race and the promise of more to come at the end of July.
However, the streets are still occupied by just as many LGTBI people; People who are either not straight or don’t adhere to the classic conventions of the genre; perfectly normal people, in short, outside the normative spectrum. What follows is a selection from nine of them. Common to all under the age of 28 is the test they have subjected their own identity to, without relying on labels or precedent and transcending social groups. For some, this investigation is complete; For others, it runs its course so that it stays with them throughout their lives. Some of their stories are created through music; others via social networks. Some with something as private as a haircut or as public as a drag appearance in the Spanish media; All in a much friendlier and more tolerant world than the one in which they are developing today.
Richard and David: “If I have to give up being a man because I’m effeminate and don’t play by the rules, I’d rather say I am and break the stereotype.”
Richard, left, and David, right, on a June morning in Madrid.PABLO ZAMORA
Richard (Hungary, 21) and David (Valencia, 20), like other white men in the group, grew up in a world where equal marriages are not even questioned and LGTBI representation (at least the first two acronyms) is accepted for granted. . But that’s not necessarily the world they live in. The world they create is one where labels must be questioned and even despised. “Pronoun? I use everything,” explains Richard. “I don’t like to say you are this, you are that. That’s just me and that’s all. I’m nonbinary and binary at the same time, it’s a lot more fluid…though I wouldn’t say it’s gendered either. It’s me. To dry. When they tell me I’m gay, it sounds like I’m a super feminine man who moves and talks like that. And I am and I do it, not because I’m gay, but because I’m gay.” Richard will soon be celebrating his one-year anniversary as David’s boyfriend, whom he met on Tinder. David also knows how sleepless a label can be. “I guess I consider myself a man, but I haven’t slept for a long time because of it,” he sighs. “In the end I said: If I have to do without being a man because I’m female and don’t follow the rules, then I’d rather say that it’s me and break with the cliché.”
Carlota Marcos and Lucía del Vall: “Hey, lesbians can also be two noble people you meet on the street”
Luana del Vall, left, and Carlota Marcos, right, in Madrid. PABLO ZAMORA
As a child, Carlota (21 years old) thought about being a lesbian, things that, as they say today, were terrible. “I wrote in my journal that I actually did it to get attention,” he says. “Whose attention? The voices in my head? Because I haven’t told anyone. The environment Carlota grew up in wasn’t the best, she says herself. “I heard barbarism after barbarism.” It wasn’t his family’s thing, even though they were Catholic and didn’t have a TV (his grandfather “was the guy , who said there have always been homosexuals and nothing ever happened”). What Carlota wasn’t particularly kind about was the street: “Going to a party with a friend, Santiago, super posh, gay, who looked miles away. He cried at all the parties because eight bucks came to tell him he was a fucking fag.
However, today thousands of girls have Carlota Marcos as a lesbian reference. She is a model and has 30,000 followers on TikTok; his girlfriend since last October, Luana del Vall, 60,000. “We started uploading videos together, and they were actually successful,” explains Luana. “School-age girls write to us … We have a super healthy relationship with them. We’re not your typical mega-regulatory lesbians because we’re both hyper-feminine and the media often didn’t convey the image, “Hey, lesbians can also be two posh girls you meet on the street.” Carlota, the one with the well acquainted with the grunts of a homophobic mob (“They’re animals, beasts, literally”), admits that while Pride doesn’t represent them (“I don’t feel good at all, I can see that it’s very masculine .” she says) Being a reference is a form of activism. And that she conveys a strong message with her story and image: She’s from where she’s from, and now a year out of the closet (“I give it a 10 out of 10”), she notes a bottom line that she’s conveying in her videos: “Little Carlota is the Carlota that she is now, not the one that was in between.” The power to get out of the closet is that simple.
Yenesi: “I don’t think existence should be a political act. It should be an artistic act”
Yenesi, in Madrid. PAUL ZAMORA
“I survived more than I lived,” summarizes Álvaro Suárez (San Juan de la Arena, Asturias, 22 years old), for the thousands who know her, Yenesi, the last months of her life. Last year, videos he uploaded to Twitter demonstrating impersonation attracted attention; He soon had his own hardcore techno songs (Yenesi, La rave del amor and a cover, Nothing Is the Same Without You) and he was singing around, even opening for Samantha Hudson (to her, her drag mom) and paraded around headlines you have to march through to be someone in 2023: Playz, La pija y la quinqui, Las Tentaciones Aftershow…
Today, this artist is an integral part of the newly formed LGTBI culture in Spain, despite being an all-rounder and a symbol of the nation that one day, maybe not very soon, we could be: one, friendly and free. “I didn’t have any homophobic problems,” he describes a reasonably happy childhood. This has helped to envision the possibilities that lie ahead. “I don’t think it should be a political act to exist and express yourself the way you want to. It should be an artistic act.” And so on, we all pass. “For example, I consider myself a non-binary person. Lately, I’ve been more comfortable with a less extreme feminine image than I’ve been looking for at times. This is not an exclusive exercise for LGTBI people. Heterosexual people are also often lost and do not feel identified with the image they have. Likewise a person who has dressed smartly all his life and suddenly feels more comfortable not in a suit but in a tracksuit. Well, maybe it’s a bit of that too. It’s also a bit like new faces can show up with new things.
Alfonso de la Cruz: “I can serve as an outlet for people who don’t have it”
Alfonso de la Cruz poses exclusively for ICON in Madrid on a morning in June.
“Baby, you’ve damaged my spirit / I didn’t want anything at all and I want with you,” sings a male voice. “Take off your clothes”, the new song by La Cruz, is one of the very few, the first, openly gay songs in a genre that was historically cultivated by machos like reggaeton. “How many artists have not taken references from the LGTBI collective to create musical projects?” defends the singer Alfonso de la Cruz (Caracas, 27 years old), who already caused a stir in the OT edition in 2018 when he admitted to be deceased that he was a gay man.
For him, a staunch supporter of the power of the mainstream and the reach of Pride (“I don’t miss anyone, we all have to leave the house to show love”), incorporating his homosexuality into his music was something that could only bring him benefits. “I can serve as an outlet for people who don’t have it, even people who can’t sing songs for other kids,” he explains. And ultimately, it all serves to widen the window of public acceptance. As he describes himself after a meaningful smile, “If you get a message across well, I think you eat it with potatoes, even if you don’t like the genre it’s aimed at.”
Agazu: “Ideologically I’m a woman, but when they ask me what I identify with, I don’t know how to answer”
Agazu poses exclusively for ICON in Madrid one morning in June. PABLO ZAMORA
“My chest just wasn’t a part of me. He had brutal dysphoria. I can’t see any before photos. No videos or anything. I actually erased it from my memory. It was always like that for me. Agazu (Belgium, 23 years old) speaks slowly, as if each word had its own gravitational field. She has lived in Spain, in Pontevedra, for 15 years and has dedicated much of it to discovering her own identity, gender and everything else. He does it critically, that is, without pursuing previously drawn paths. A gender identity does not necessarily have to be something that has already been seen. “I don’t identify with anything. In fact, I find it difficult to answer these questions,” he explains. When asked what she identifies with most, she replies: “Ideologically I’m a woman, but when you ask me what you identify with, I don’t know how to answer. With my sexual partners I am suddenly a man. Or not. You know?”.
Azazu’s face belongs to her and no one else, but countless others on similar journeys of self-discovery, where only what the body deems worth, can see themselves reflected in it. In November last year, Agazu underwent breast surgery, not to present a more masculine image but more of himself. “I didn’t cut my hair before, I always wanted it long. A crazy day, I said, come on. I cut myself, shaved and said, “That’s it.” As soon as I left, my mother said to me, “You look so much prettier that way.” It wasn’t all the way easy. He had to swallow some insults, get used to them and think about the future. “Throughout my life I’ve heard things, I’ve experienced things. I don’t care now. Break. Another gravitational field. “We still have so much ahead of us.”
George and Theodor: “Now I know I can be careless. Now I know that society accepts me.”
Teo Stoyanov kisses his partner George Gorg on a June morning in Madrid. PABLO ZAMORA
For example, Teodor Stoyanov (Bulgaria, 20 years old) cannot pronounce the strong “r” of a craftsman. This has turned out to be an essential feature in his life. Three years ago, George Gogr (Bulgaria, 23 years old) was dating a friend and wondering what her ideal boyfriend would look like. That he was a Scorpio. That he had dark hair and blue eyes. Musician. “And my friend said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cute if I suddenly couldn’t pronounce a letter?’ And I said, well, I missed it. Because it’s very rare: everyone in Bulgaria can pronounce it, and if you don’t understand it when you’re little, they send you to a speech therapist.” Within a week of that conversation, Tim and George met and practically fell in love Job. The question of the r was more crucial than the fact that George is a non-binary human being with a greater preference for traditionally feminine aesthetics. Coming out just a few weeks earlier, Tim learned an important lesson: he didn’t have to make adjustments to be with someone who, to others, falls on the spectrum of being different. “Some things get to a point where you don’t care.”
The demands of a collective without faces are sometimes just that: numbers and lists on an Excel grid or a piece of paper. When they are given a first and last name, a face and a story, everything changes. This couple, who have just settled in Spain after a stay in London (it’s said to be a more welcoming country than theirs), saw it up close while posing on their Instagram accounts: how many people applaud them. But mostly they saw it in one person. “My father wasn’t a tolerant person,” warns George. “He was the most traditional, conservative and Bulgarian father in the world. Today he is a completely different person. She moved to London with us to spend more time with my sister and her newborn son and spending time with us has made her a brighter, more tolerant person. And he started loving me. And suddenly it was like, ‘Shit, I’m super grateful for this love.’ It’s so special.’ I had no idea. Now I know I can be careless with him. Now I know that society accepts me.”
Realization: Tobias. Make-up and hairdresser: Lucas Margarit (Another artist). Photo assistant: Mario del Val. Make-up and hairdresser assistant: María Limón (Other artist). Cast: Sky Division.
You can follow ICON on Facebook, TwitterInstagram, or subscribe to the newsletter here.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits