EUROPE’S CAPITALS and resorts are engaged in what almost seems a contest to see which will become the gayest city or the hottest gay mecca. Berlin is currently touting a new survey suggesting that one in ten residents is gay or bisexual. Amsterdam boasts that it offers a hundred establishments catering specifically to a gay crowd. London’s Old Compton Street attracts gay tourists from all over the globe. Greece’s Santorini Island bills itself as a paradise for same-sex couples, with black sand beaches and plenty of bars and discos making for a lively scene.
But no place in Europe combines enlightened politics with a sunny Mediterranean climate the way Barcelona does, which is why Spain’s second city has become one of the top choices for GLBT people visiting or living in Europe. On a sunny Sunday afternoon in Barcelona, one can sit on a park bench and watch a stream of happy couples, both straight and gay, go by hand-in-hand. Most of the Barcelonese don’t seem to give this new cultural development a second thought. Indeed throughout Spain nowadays, at least in the larger cities, a person’s sex life is considered a totally private matter (rural Spain may be another matter).
Spain passed Europe’s most progressive same-sex marriage law in 2005, soon after President José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, leader of the Socialist Party, came to power. Some 4,500 same-sex couples were married in the first year after the law’s passage, with thousands more to follow. Spain’s gay marriage law allows couples to adopt children, and it does not require that the partners be Spanish nationals so long as one of the partners is a current resident of Spain. While gay marriage is now largely accepted by the populace, Spain is still a Catholic country, and the Roman Church is less than thrilled about this development. During the March 2008 presidential elections, the Church organized large rallies in Madrid calling for the repeal of the same-sex marriage law. Some 150,000 people marched in Madrid on December 30, 2007, in the name of “Catholic family values.”
But despite the Church’s occasional fits of disapproval, same-sex marriage holds a sixty percent approval rating in Spain. This reflects the decline of the authority of the Church itself in recent years—one is hard-pressed to find a church that’s anywhere close to full on a typical Sunday morning—as young Spaniards are dramatically less religious than were their parents and grandparents. Part of this decline can be explained by the reaction to Francisco Franco’s 35-year rule after his demise in 1975. Franco was a staunch Roman Catholic who enforced a strict moral code that interwove political fascism and religious orthodoxy. It goes without saying that his regime was altogether intolerant of sexual diversity; Franco also crushed Spain’s minority languages—Catalan, Basque, and Gallego—while enforcing Spanish as the national language. Religions other than Catholicism were suppressed, while Catholic dogma was taught in the public schools.
The backlash against the Franco regime following the dictator’s death was both swift and thoroughgoing. Europe’s most reactionary country—the final holdout of fascism after its defeat in World War II—was on the road to becoming arguably its most progressive. Barcelona is perhaps the most shining example of this turnaround. The region of which it is the capital, Catalonia—because it spoke a separate language and was ethnically distinct from the rest of Spain—was marked by Franco for special oppression, which perhaps explains the strength of its determination to take a different path. In addition, the 1992 Olympic Games helped to modernize Barcelona, as the government of Spain invested heavily in the city so that its infrastructure could accommodate—and dazzle—the large number of foreign visitors.
Barcelona has become a magnet for same-sex couples from all over Europe. A typically international example is that of Brendan and Peter, a couple I know that has lived in Barcelona for five years. The partners are a Canadian and a Swede who were recently married in Sweden and then came back to Barcelona after a quick honeymoon in Miami. When asked why they chose to live in Barcelona instead of Stockholm, their answer came without hesitation: the weather! But, of course, it’s not only the sun and sangria that bring them to Barcelona. Peter explained that while Sweden prides itself on its liberal politics, the country’s laws are not always in line with the true views of the people. Sweden presents itself as gay-friendly, but Peter has found the culture to be quite homophobic in some ways, which he and Brendan have not found to be true of Barcelona.
For those just visiting rather than settling down, Barcelona offers a smorgasbord of options for a fabulous gay holiday. The city boasts a high-end gay hotel called the Axel, which advertises itself, tongue-in-cheek, as “hetero-friendly.” Located on the Mediterranean coast, Barcelona boasts a number of small beaches along the city’s shoreline, several of which are predominantly gay, of which one is a nude beach. The cleanliness of the Mediterranean waters so close to a major metropolis can be debated, but this doesn’t stop both gay and non-gay sun worshippers from flocking to beaches throughout the relatively long season. For cleaner and gayer swimming, visitors to Barcelona head to Sitges, 45 minutes north of Barcelona by train. Sitges has long been a gay destination and boasts quite a happening international scene, especially during the summer months, when it’s almost impossible to find a room. Sitges is also the location for Carnival, a week of masked mayhem in February put on largely by the town’s gay community.
There are those who hope Spain will eventually return to its conservative roots, but this seems unlikely to happen, especially now that Spain’s gay population is increasing due to the immigration of gay couples (and singles, too) from elsewhere. Countries seeking to modernize their same-sex laws could do worse than look to Spain as a model for reform. If a once Roman Catholic country can have the broadest gay marriage law in the world, then just maybe there’s hope for the rest of us.
To cap its self-proclaimed status as “Europe’s #1 Gay Destination,” Barcelona will host the Gay and Lesbian Eurogames 2008 this July.
Regina WB is an American writer living in Barcelona, Spain.
