Last Friday, Women's Day, the Valencia City Council announced the approval of the organizing committee in charge of coordinating the XII Gay Games, an event that promotes equality, diversity and inclusion through sport and culture, which Valencia will host. in the year 2026.
But that announcement has not been well received in the city's LGBTI community, whose unrest has been growing since then until yesterday, when five entities -Fundación València Diversitat, Lambda - Col·lectiu LGTB per la diversitat sexual, de gènere i familia , Association of companies and professionals for lesbians, gays, transsexuals and bisexuals of the Valencian Community (Avegal), Club Esportiu LGBTI DRACS València and Club Esportiu LGTB Samarucs València - communicated that they are dissociating themselves and withdrawing their support for the organization. They assure that they feel underrepresented because "the current composition leaves the making of any decision in the hands of the Administration."
"This governing in the French way, by the people, but without the people it is not understandable. What are we, a mere troupe? Nobody imagines an act of women without women being able to contribute." The reflection is from Fran Fernández, general coordinator of Lambda, and who yesterday explained to this medium that the balloon has been swelling for months until now it has burst. "Since the change of government they told us that they were not in the previous line, and we began to work on another negotiation, but the decision we have is that everything was decided and the negotiation did not matter," explains Fernández.
Fernández explains that there have been months of negotiations with Councilor Rocío Gil until, finally, on Friday, March 8, the City Council placed quotas on the decision-making power that each entity would have in the organizing committee of the Games. This will be chaired by the Mayor or councilor whom she delegates, while the vice-presidency of the body will be held by the councilor, from among those in the government team, designated by the mayor herself.
The problem comes, above all, from the distribution of the six members of the committee, which belong to the Generalitat Valenciana, Diputación de Valencia, Fundación Valencia Diversitat, Club Esportiu LGTB Samarucs Valencia, Fundación Deportiva Municipal and Fundación Visit Valencia. He will act as secretary of the Organizing Committee, the secretary of Area II of the City Council of Valencia or the official staff to whom he delegates. Translated, he criticizes Lambda and the rest of the entities, which will only have two (the votes of Fundación Valencia Diversitat and Club Esportiu LGTB Samarucs) out of a total of eight votes in the committee.
The entities sound the alarm by ensuring that what they call a "change in approach carried out by the City Council without the approval of the Federation of Gay Games" could mean that said entity would withdraw the tender for the games to the city of Valencia, opting for another alternative venue.
Opposition parties also point to this possibility and ask to correct the decision. "Let's avoid the international embarrassment that the Gay Games Federation has to take the games to another city due to Catalá's disastrous decision," laments Javier Mateo, PSPV councilor, who will present a motion together with all LGTBI groups to demand that he rectify.
Compromís will also present a motion in the next municipal plenary session to request that "the dialogue and agreement be restored with the LGTBI entities of València" for the organization of the games.
Papi Robles, its municipal spokesperson, assured yesterday that "this sectarian decision by Catalá expelling the entities means blowing up the consensus and commitments with the Federation of Gay Games."
In this regard, according to EFE, sources from the City Council assured that a Committee has been created in which institutions and entities are represented "since the Gay Games belong to everyone." But for LGTBI groups there is a danger that the event will become only "a celebration of sun, beach and paella."
They maintain that the Federation of Gay Games recommended "a balanced participation and the intervention of an external entity to mediate, but where is the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Trans, Bisexuals, Intersex and more?", they ask. However, she hopes that Mayor María José Catalá will mediate and redirect a situation before putting at risk an event that Valencia achieved in November 2011 when the Administration and the now signatory entities went hand in hand in Brighton for the Valencian candidacy.
