Title: Revealed: history of Spain's fearless 1970s trans-rights political collectiveLink To: Article 🔗 [Link: theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/25/history-of-spain-fearless-1970s-trans-rights-political-collective/]Author: Ashifa Kassam
Date: Sat 25 Jul 2026 19.00 AEST
Trigger Warning: This article discusses abuse.
Brief summary of the articleThe article reports on new research into Spain's first transgender political organisation, the Colectivo de Travestis y Transexuales, founded in Barcelona in 1978. It describes how the collective campaigned during Spain's transition to democracy while members still faced Franco-era laws, discrimination, police intervention and social exclusion.
Main Points of the Article"New research has shed light on Spain's first transgender political organisation, a trailblazing collective that was launched in 1978 as its members grappled with the lingering persecution of the country's four-decade dictatorship."
"Meetings were held once a week, attracting about 20 members who pushed for rights such as gender recognition in the civil registry, said Iago Mora, a PhD researcher at King's College London whose research recovered the collective's story decades after it slid into obscurity."
""They weren't just gathering in private; they were taking to the streets, calling themselves transsexuals and travestis and holding banners that, for example, denounced their objectification and criticised the attitude of the Catholic church.""
""They also had specific demands regarding legal reform, job market exclusion, societal attitudes and cultural representation – areas that they saw as deeply interconnected.""
"During much of the collective's existence, the Franco-era laws remained in place, meaning its members took tremendous risks in speaking out, said Juan Martínez-Gil, an affiliated lecturer at the University of Cambridge whose research focuses on transgender representation during Spain's transition to democracy."
""Trans people continued to suffer intense repression through the 1980s, through both informal police harassment and the judicial persecution of these offences, as well as ongoing social and economic exclusion," said Mora."
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