Bilbao Bizkaia HARRO celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, fighting for LGBTI+ rights. This includes launching the largest LGBTI+ media awareness campaign; creating an annual agenda for LBTI+ women; promoting initiatives that facilitate the employment of migrants; and organizing a truly inclusive Pride event where everyone is welcome.
Bilbao Bizkaia HARRO concluded its tenth edition last Sunday with a very positive outcome, reaffirming its commitment to culture, partnerships, and leisure as tools for visibility and advocacy. This year, Bilbao Bizkaia HARRO was present in more districts than ever before; specifically in five municipalities: Derio, Santurtzi, Güeñes, and Getxo, in addition to the capital, Bilbao. An initiative in which 50,000 people of all ages participated, groups of friends and families came together with music and messages of empowerment, with a particularly strong turnout of young people and LGBTQ+ women. These figures make HARRO the leading LGBTQ+ Pride event in the Basque Country and the Atlantic region. A symbol of the protection of LGBTQ+ rights, as expressed on our poster with the eguzkilore (sunflower) as its central element.
That is why, at Bilbao Bizkaia HARRO, we want to focus on businesses this year. While there isn’t a specific study analyzing the reality of LGBTI people in Basque companies, other studies do exist. Just a month ago, the UGT union reported that 78% of LGBTI+ people have suffered homophobic or transphobic incidents, and 40% hide their identity for fear of reprisals. Trans people, for their part, report that 15% have been rejected during interviews because of their gender identity. These figures align with the trends observed in other studies by the Network of Companies for Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) and the European Observatory on Human Rights.
These data show that much remains to be done in the workplace and require businesses to be proactive in promoting LGBTI+ equality measures without waiting for legislation to mandate it. To make progress in this area, Bilbao Bizkaia HARRO proposes the following measures to the new Basque Government and the business community:
- To facilitate the possibility for LGBTI+ people to have family offspring through the promotion of work-life balance measures.
- Inclusion of homophobia and transphobia in company harassment and aggression protocols immediately.
- Appointment of a staff contact person for cases of harassment and assault on LGBTphobic issues.
- Implementation of awareness campaigns aimed at internal and external staff that highlight the company’s commitment to diversity.
- Train staff on respecting diversity in work environments.
Finally, Bilbao Bizkaia HARRO advocates for the unity of the LGBTI+ movement, which will allow us to combat, without division, the hate speech promoted by the far right throughout Europe. Therefore, it calls for unity in a Bizkaia LGBTI+ Coordinating Committee that genuinely addresses the real problems of the community (employment, assaults, laws that address non-criminal assaults, etc.) and does not succumb to partisan interests seeking to impose a coordinating model that excludes debate and the participation of all LGBTI+ organizations.
And we never tire of saying it… We will never stop dancing. No matter what anyone says.
