Being gay and socializing in Catalan in Barcelona: "You feel marginalized, you get the cold shoulder, you get blocked on Grindr."

Barcelona"LGBT+ conversation meeting in Catalan / LGTBI+ Catalan conversation", announces Meetup, the leisure network to which they are regulars expats and tourists passing through Barcelona. This is how the event is announced, which will bring a trickle of people to the Moeem bar on Monday night to meet for a drink and a chat in Catalan. There will end up being about fifteen people, half Catalan-speaking language volunteers and the other half foreigners who are quite fluent in Catalan.

The organization Stick Your Tongue Out of the Closet is the one who organizes the meetings. It was founded three years ago, after noticing that it's already very difficult to go out at night in Gaixample and socialize in Catalan. "They speak to you in English sooner than in Catalan in Barcelona, ​​and in Sitges it's even worse," says Jordi, one of the promoters. Barcelona is a magnet forexpats, immigrants, tourists looking for gay leisure and also sexiliates"Sexile, sexual exile, we experience it here from villages to cities, but internationally people come from other countries because here there are more liberal laws, you have more opportunities to socialize and walk down the street holding hands with your partner," explains Jordi.

Now, the fact of being a capital queer It has a linguistic impact. "In recent years, living in Catalan within the LGBTI world has become something very rare, a minority experience, and you're often misunderstood. Many people have come from outside because Barcelona is an LGBTI haven, but those of us who are from here and want to campaign for the language and, at the same time, for LGBTI life have to make a very difficult balance. What a point, really," says Dídac Cerezo. He also feels out of place when bars are clearly designed to attract foreigners, with greater purchasing power and the perennial euphoria of vacations.

Low visibility and blocking on networks

"We're part of a group that places a lot of importance on minorities and sexual diversity, and I celebrate that, but it's curious that the same people who are standing up for visibility, when you express yourself in Catalan within this group, they marginalize you, they turn their backs on you, they block you on Grindr, they give you the cold shoulder, they don't respond to you, they don't respond to you, they don't respond to you, they don't respond to you, they don't respond to you, and no. A contradiction and a hypocrisy. This has meant that in order for me to be able to act both gay and Catalan in my country, I have to turn to this group," says David Hornos. And he jokes: "We'll have to add the C for Catalan to the LGTBIQ+ community so that they respect us."

Hornos, a longtime gay rights activist, would never have imagined the current situation. "You can't fight all the battles at once, and perhaps we were docile. Perhaps at that time you're 20 years old and prioritize having good sex and a good emotional relationship. And once you normalize this, you realize you must be able to love in your language. I know that many Catalan gays switch to Spanish to get through a good hunger; at my age, it doesn't come from here," he says.

"These meetings are proof that civil society exists when institutions let us down. Perhaps we're sick, but we're not dead," says David Mallol, also a volunteer and language activist. For him, the two main problems are that the waiters at Gaixample aren't asked to understand Catalan and the aggression on social media. "Anti-Catalan insults and comments are common. I'm blocked on Grindr because I've been reported. Since everyone introduces themselves in Spanish, if you speak Catalan you seem anti-establishment; it's an ultra-concerned language," he says.

Get rid of shame

The only girl, Rita Lino, is Portuguese and has just met Dídac Cerezo, who is also a Catalan teacher. "As a gay man, language volunteering can make me feel insecure, because I don't want to be closeted again, and it can be uncomfortable if people come who don't react well to your sexuality. Here I feel part of my community and I can share Catalan outside of formal settings, as a volunteer and activist," reflects Rita, who has been living in Barcelona for two years. She says she's "very embarrassed to speak Catalan," but here she's broken the ice: "People here like it when I speak Catalan, just as I like it when people back home speak my language." She regrets that girls are less visible in the environment. There's also a lack of young people with awareness and activism for Catalan, adds Mallol.

Gonzalo Mayoral has been living in Barcelona for over a year, and the group claims he's the one who has improved his Catalan the most. He only knew a few words, because his grandparents were Catalan exiles in Argentina, and now he can hold spontaneous conversations. He even says nuisance instead of nonsense"I was too lazy to teach because I'm 50 and I've already studied so much!" says this agricultural engineer. "I wanted to progress more quickly, and these meetings are fantastic. I've made friends with whom I always speak in Catalan. I even had the opportunity to have a meal in Catalan with the daughters of my father's cousins. It was very nice," he celebrates.

Saca la Lengua organizes weekly meetings in bars like Moeem and Boxer, a vermouth on the weekends, conversation sessions at the LGBTI Center with the support of Òmnium, parties with music in Catalan, and they have even created their own Spotify playlist to expand the bars' musical repertoire. "We try to Catalanize the LGBTI environment, but we also try to LGBTIize Catalanism because we see the conservative waves coming everywhere," warns Jordi. For him, activism for language is an extension of the defense of his identity that he has had to do throughout his life: "In the 80s and 90s I defended LGBTI rights and now I fight for linguistic rights. Because, as a gay man, I have passing"I feel more discriminated against for being Catalan than for being gay in Barcelona," he says.