Lesbians during the conservative government of José María Aznar in Spain (1996 - 2004),éMarí experienced and participated in a variety of political and cultural happenings.
Legal and political situation for lesbians
Lesbian couples have internalized the deep-seated Spanish ideas of National Catholicism that place an important on family. This has played a role in their activism around adoption rights.
PSOE lost the general elections in 1996 after having been in office for fourteen years. They were replaced by the conservative Partido Popular. This transition marked an important moment in Spanish LG history as it marked the start of a period where homosexuality became very much an important political issue inside Spanish politics.
During the Partido Popular era, PSOE would frequently bring up LG rights when they thought it would activate their voting base by making the issue into a political weapon to attack Partido Popular.
During this period, the influence of smaller, loosely organized LGTB rights organizations in Barcelona began to fade on a national level and were replaced by national organizations based in Madrid.
Starting in 1997, political activism began to occur within the lesbian and gay rights movement to effect change on the regional level.
The 1999 Basque Country Gender Equality plan was pioneering in its inclusion of lesbians.
The 2003 Canary Islands Gender Equality plan was pioneering in its inclusion of lesbians.
The 2005 Catalan Gender Equality plan was pioneering in its inclusion of lesbians.
The Spanish government would sometimes come into conflict with the European Union over women's rights issues as they related to lesbians and other sexual minorities in bodies like European Institute of Women's Health and European Institute for Gender Equality.
Lesbians often benefited from broadening of women's rights.
Spanish lesbians in this period tend to be involved in party politics with Izquierda Unida (IU) or PSOE. Lesbians were likely to be involved in these parties less because the parties supported lesbian rights, but more because they otherwise tended to align with their general political views. As time progressed, these parties tended to align more closely with lesbian political goals.
Starting around 2001, the lesbian community pushed for anti-discrimination laws, hate crime legislation and laws to protect lesbians from domestic violence.
Lesbian rights in this period were often defined by policy makers around family, as Spanish citizenship has traditionally placed a huge value on this. This included a focus on marriage and parenting.
Marriage equality and adoption
From 1993 to 2002, the public discourse around recognition of same-sex couples was that of recognizing de facto couples. From 2002 to 2005, the lesbian and gay political agenda was focused around marriage equality.
Starting in 2001, lesbians and other in homosexual rights movement in both Spain and Portugal began a campaign for same-sex marriage and adopt rights. This was their second major political push after the decrimalization of homosexuality, which occurred in Spain in 1978.
Starting in 1995, in broader society, there were many ways people discussed the desire for same-sex couples to be recognized including using the phrases “uniones de hecho”, “parejas de hecho” and “matrimonio gay”.
Efforts in 1997 and 1998 in Catalonia would seek the regional government recognize civil unions. They successfully got a couples registry in Catalonia in 1998. They were the sixth place in the world to do this, behind Denmark in 1989, Norway in 1993, Sweden in 1995, Iceland and Hungary in 1996 and the Netherlands in 1998.
A survey in 1997 found that 57.4% of Spaniards favored same-sex couples having the same rights and obligations as married couples, with 84.6% supporting the marriage equality. In 1998, COGAM began advocating for same-sex marriage and same-sex couple adoption.
De facto relationships of same-sex couples were allowed to be registered in Aragon starting in 1999, in Navarra in 2000 and in Valencia in 2001. De facto relationship registries were not enough for lesbian and gay couples because these did not allow them to adopt; the law only allowed married couples to be able to adopt or to assume guardianship of children.
In 2000, Navarre became the first region to allow lesbians and gays to adopt. The law passed despite opposition from Navarrese People's Union (UPN). COGAM spokesperson Beatriz Gimeno said of the passage of the law, "It is a great step forward because it breaks with the last social taboo that exists towards homosexuals."