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- The law was repealed in 1970 and substitute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)