Green Thursday, radio program, February 6, 1975

  • UNNAMED SPANISH DELEGATE: Scientific ignorance
  • such expressions as disgusting vice, go against nature,
  • moral contagion, highly immoral conduct, (unintelligible),
  • liberating practices against nature, et cetera,
  • reminds us more as a bishop's sermon
  • than of an eighth court judge.
  • As if the proceeding sentence were not evidence enough,
  • we find the following words in an actual judgment, nefarious
  • of the medical trade, like an angel from the medieval past.
  • The ideological question of the political system,
  • which is clearly discernible from the expression cited,
  • becomes more and more obvious as a mixture of constant reaction
  • and cynicism when in Supreme Court judgement of 1969,
  • for example, gayness is defined as an obscene practice
  • particulated and created by our culture, which
  • is more tolerant than open and respectful relations
  • between opposite sexes.
  • Gayness is described as a repugnant affair, which
  • is revolting to every honest functions, offense
  • against decency, and good conduct.
  • What is really surprising is that in using
  • certain expressions, all the Spanish judges
  • succeed in doing to gays, who desire
  • to live as a human beings, is to show them what they must do,
  • namely subvert the family and the moral and social order.
  • In other words, change society.
  • But the Spanish legislation also (unintelligible) defines
  • itself with the political system when it includes gays clearly
  • and explicitly in the law which has
  • served as the regime's principal repressive instrument.
  • That is the 1933 Law of Vagrants and Rogues.
  • This law, when reformed in 1954, lays down
  • that gays, by the mere fact of being so,
  • can be declared dangerous and subject to security measures.
  • The law was repealed in 1970 and substitute
  • by the present law relating to the socially dangers
  • and to show rehabilitation.
  • Ley de Peligrosidad y Rehabilitación Social ,
  • drawn up by Judge Antonio Sabater Tomás,
  • who had always distinguished himself by his impeccable
  • severity, as implicated in his speeches, articles,
  • and judicial actions, against all who were outside the social
  • (unintelligible), especially gays who, according to him,
  • constitute an international mafia.
  • (Audience laughter)
  • This alone, which Judge Sabater Tomás (unintelligible) which
  • was presented to the Cortez's Spanish Parliament:
  • all gays over 16 will be pled socially dangerous,
  • simply because of they're being gays, just as they were before.
  • With this, certain members of the chamber
  • did not agree, as they considered the wording far
  • too sweeping and exaggerated.
  • In the end, a law was passed in a less radical form, leaving it
  • to the courts to rule that not all gays be declared socially
  • dangerous, but only those individuals who
  • were proved to commit homosexual acts
  • and in whom they would become a danger to society.
  • Although for all practical purposes,
  • it came to the same thing.
  • It would help a defending lawyer do some legal hair
  • splitting for the direct benefit of the gays.
  • The sanctions which the law applies
  • to gays who are declared a danger to society
  • range from prohibiting them from living in certain areas
  • or visiting certain public places
  • and submitting them to judicial control for five years.
  • Or they can be confined in re-educational centers
  • for up to three years.
  • At present, they would be interned
  • in the Center of Re-education of Male Homosexuals in Huelva,
  • Andalucia.
  • It appears that there they are not subjected to any aversion
  • therapy as we feared.
  • But that, after the police have dealt with them
  • before and after sentence, the reeducation
  • is claimed to be achieved as a fine example
  • of the illogicality of the system to work,
  • such as the making of (unintelligible), ropes
  • for the navy, footballs, et cetera.
  • Like the internees in the Auschwitz concentration camp,
  • they are told work will make you free.
  • And of course, in Catholic Spain,
  • they are treated to sermons like this, preaching salvation
  • through the gospel message.
  • All this leads to distressing situations
  • amongst those interned in the re-educational center,
  • upsetting the emotional stability,
  • even leading to attempt suicide.
  • Once the judge in charge of the case
  • receives a report that their re-education process has
  • been accomplished, he can order the internee to be released,
  • reserving the right to excise him
  • from his usual place of residence.
  • However, even the limited capacity
  • of the Huelva Center for a country
  • with 34 million inhabitants, the majority of those convicted
  • by the courts are simply shut out
  • in the ordinary jails like any other member.
  • From what we have said, both on the legal situation
  • of the gays in Spain as well as on the historical political
  • break down, it can be seen that the Spanish gays is up
  • against a pitiless reality of persecution and discrimination.
  • He has absolutely no possibility of defense
  • and must submit to uncontrolled police action, which is not
  • accustomed to meeting with any hindrance
  • to its brutality, the basis of its reputated efficiency.
  • But it is not.
  • Only the gay is the victim of this blind force charged
  • with watching over the order and peace of the Spanish people.
  • And those who oppose the continuance of the political
  • system, inherited from Hitler, Mussolini,
  • Sabater (unintelligible) Tomás, are also its victims.
  • We therefore maintain here that the claims of gays in Spain
  • should be integrated with those of the Spanish people
  • as a whole so that their rights as men and citizens
  • should be recognized.
  • The political transformation of Spain
  • is the only hope for Spanish gays.
  • (Audience applause) (Music playing from radio show)
  • BOB CRYSTAL: That was Defaye, First Movement Harpsichord
  • Concerto.
  • This has been Green Thursday for February 6, 1975.
  • Any comments or questions about the preceding interviews,
  • please direct them to Green Thursday, WCMF, 129 Leighton
  • Avenue, Rochester, 14609.
  • (Coin hitting table)
  • Bruce, I got my quarter back.
  • RADIO HOST: Boy, it's better than a tax return, isn't it?
  • Views and opinions expressed on Green Thursday
  • don't necessarily represent those of WCMF, its staff
  • or management.
  • Green Thursday is an hour long program
  • produced by WCMF and by men from Rochester's gay community
  • and will be on the air again two weeks from tonight
  • at 12 o'clock on Thursday morning, next Thursday morning
  • at 12 AM.
  • Patty Evans will be in with Lesbian Nation,
  • a program produced by CMF and women
  • from Rochester's lesbian community.
  • It's 18 after one o'clock in the morning now.
  • Here's a look at the music and events calendar for today.
  • And we'll have Leon Russell on the old tune decks right after.
  • For live music tonight, look forward
  • to Blue Ox at the Purple Pig, Buzzo's Bandits,
  • back at the Penny Arcade tonight. (End of recording)