On this day, 15 July 1954, the right-wing dictatorship of general Francisco Franco amended the 1933 vagrancy law to criminalise homosexuality. The amendment also authorised the detention of all those convicted under the law in labour and concentration camps (content note: sexual violence).
Over the next 25 years, around 5,000 LGBT+ people would be imprisoned – mostly gay and bisexual men and trans women. They were housed in specialist prisons in Huelva and Badajoz, and in a camp in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, and many were subjected to brutal sexual violence, and medical abuse like electric shock treatment.
Most of those prosecuted for breaching the law were working class, and historian Pablo Fuentes told the Guardian that it was “not uncommon to hear homosexuals from the upper classes and the aristocracy speak about the Franco period as a great time.”
After Franco’s death in 1975 and the subsequent fall of the dictatorship, political prisoners were released, but LGBT+ prisoners were not.
The homophobic law was eventually overturned in 1979, although those imprisoned because of it were not recognised as victims of Francoism and awarded compensation until 2009.
Pictured: Silvia Reyes, who was victimised under the law.
Learn more about the civil war which resulted in Franco taking power in our podcast episodes 39-40. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/working-class-history/id1355066333https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2034883436696796/?type=3
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