‘Lazy and thugs’: When Francoism made hatred of homosexuals a state policy

“Although he was personally honored, they wanted to give symbolic reparation to the group as a whole with the recognition of Petit. Recognizing the memory of these people was a clear gesture on behalf of the Government, and yet there is still more to be done, gradually this country is closing pending accounts with people who are being retaliated“, To explain Fernando OlmedaJournalist and writer who, with the publication of ‘El látigo y la pluma’ nearly twenty years ago, was one of the first to justify the memory of homosexuals harassed by Francoism.

“Working as a presenter and editor on Tele 5 news on weekends, equal marriage law, whose defense am I involved in? In this context, the possibility arose of writing a book on homosexuality under the Franco regime, a subject focused more on ‘queer’ theory, neither by academia, nor by the historiography, nor by the LGTB movements themselves. It recalls Olmeda, whose book was reprinted by publisher Dos Bigotes with a foreword written for this event by Bob Pop.

“Even though we were in the early 2000s, people still had a fear of revealing their social, family and work lives. That’s why it was very important to be able to access the dangerous files in Huelva prison. Actually, when I was examining these documents, I was not as interested in the names of the reprisals as in the letter of the persecution. It is the letter of the Vagrants and Fraudsters Act and Social Hazard Act filings that truly explains how the persecution of homosexuality is done. both legal and social.

“Disgusting filth”, “humility”, “unnatural”, “sexual perversion”, “immoral perversions”, “immoral perversions”, “vicious lust” or “vile sodomy smuggling” are some of the terms used in criminal cases. Referencing homosexuality, thanks to a regulation created by the Social Hazard Act, which, although ratified in 1970, would not be effectively repealed until 1995.

“The delay in repealing this norm is in response to the setting of other priorities, which, in my opinion, is reasonable and logical, as an entire country must be rebuilt during the Transition and the early years of democracy. We must not forget that after democracy was established, the gay community experienced a contradictory or complementary moment: on the one hand The stigmatization of its members due to HIV, on the other hand, the empowerment of LGBT groups demanding their rights. It was done in thirty years of democracy, then everything happened very quickly”.

Morality of an immoral regime

“The most fundamental deficiencies, such as obscene general plunder and lack of food, shelter or work, always had a justification, and the citizen had no choice but to passive surrender. However, the sins of sex were considered immoral. Fernando Olmeda, in one of the chapters of ‘El látigo y la pluma’ No morality, public and private behavior of the Spaniards other than the sexual one was obsessively watched, referring to the course of action of Francoism and its main ally. , the catholic church.

“National-Catholicism, Church-State alliance determines the nature of the dictatorship. Among its goals was the oppression of homosexuals, who were first the enemy, then the criminal, then the sick and finally the dangerous. However, this control and oppression of sexuality, both in the social sphere and in prison, immediately failed with great failure. No matter how much you control it, men and women are stronger than dictatorships, and everyone found tricks, formulas, the most creative resources, some risky but very interesting. Resist and justify”, Olmeda says quotes numerous gay meeting places in his book. From the Carretas cinema in Madrid to the urinals of the train stations, some bars, billiards, barracks, seminars and even visits as popular and religious as El Rocío.

People coming from the countryside to the cities find their counterparts there with whom they begin to form codes, places and areas of relationship. [como] florists, hairdressers or tailors”

“My favorite part is the 60’s, when immigration to Madrid and Barcelona started creating networks of gay socialization. People who came to these cities from the countryside found their counterparts there, where they started learning their code, location, and relationship areas that also became their own flag. For example, florists, hairdressers, tailors, and other businesses that function as resistance and revenge. Here, they could both show themselves as they are and own their own business, which allowed them to be accepted by the society. In fact, it is this phenomenon of mutual support that explains why the collective began to win the streets in the late 1960s”.

sneaky loves

While the persecution of homosexuality did not disappear during the Franco regime, the truth is that it mutated as the dictatorship and the needs of those responsible changed. The national-Catholic influence of the early days led to the end of autarky, the signing of trade agreements with the United States, and other arguments closer to the development of Western capitalism. The writings of the Falangist ideologue are an example of this. Mauricio Carlavilla who said in 1956 homosexuality endangered the family, reproductive sexuality and… private property.

Years later, the arrival of foreign tourists on the shores of Spain meant that the authorities were reluctantly forced to coexist. Openly gay enclaves like the Begoña Pass in Torremolinos or the Sitges dunes. In any case, the ban persisted, and the secretive and insidious nature of sexual relations made their protagonists have to sacrifice their long-term affections to make do with the most pressing genitalia.

Imagine what it would be like to be gay in Franco’s time, even in the 2000s, when ‘El látigo y la pluma’ was published, when these references did not exist for a stigmatized and underappreciated community.”

“Privacy is individual and difficult to share if you are not in a political party and the experience is not collective. Therefore, I believe we should be tolerant of our parents and grandparents, a generation from the Civil War and without. Half of Spain at the time was in exile, in prison, or it was rejected as red, so it was impossible to have information or references that would allow sexuality to be experienced any other way.Like being gay in Franco’s time, even in the 2000s, when ‘El látigo y la pluma’ was published, it was stigmatized by the Arny case in Spain, underestimated in the media. Were there any references to a community that was taken in and underestimated? There was no presence of lesbians”.

women’s section

Although testimonies and files about male homosexuals and transsexuals are predominant in ‘El látigo y la pena’, Olmeda’s article also includes the experiences of lesbian women, whose social presence was less prominent since the moment their rights were restricted due to mere existence. women.

“Another of the dictatorship’s greatest intellectual failings was thinking it wasn’t a lesbian. For National-Catholicism, woman was an element limited to reproductive sexuality, marriage, lack of rights… It was all landscape, but underneath, Women from the Women’s Branch demonstrated a great capacity for resistance. Noting that the public scandal in the Vagrants and Swindlers Act and the Social Hazard Act is almost never applied to women, Olmeda comments under these circumstances.

“There could be several reasons for this. First, because women do not exist for the regime, second, because they are not the protagonists of public scandals that should be punished, and third, because they have shown great aptitude for method and location to avoid. For example, two cousins ​​living together, two friends… In fact, even though at some point G became very important to LGBT and was the protagonist of the collective’s demands for many years, it is the lesbians who have it now. Witnessed Nearly two decades ago, seeing the difficulty of finding testimonies of lesbian women, today’s singers, writers, actresses and poets It’s amazing that they’re gaining visibility as reference persons, and I think that’s of extraordinary value,” he recalls, almost two decades after its publication, where ‘The Whip and the Feather’ is more current than ever, due, among other things, to the rise of the far right and the risk it entails for the loss of civil rights. for Olmeda. anxious.

“The book is a reference for new readers who didn’t know him at the time to know that much of the current hate speech is about the National Catholic arena and is about the poor education of us of a certain age. In that sense, and given the danger posed by these reactionary movements, remembering a sentence from someone I want. Peter Zerolo, always ‘Rights conquered, we did it; rights are used, we do it; “Rights are defended, we have to do it,” he said.