For the third consecutive year, the Leganés City Council, through the Delegations of Equality and Youth (Dejovenes), has prepared a rich program to celebrate “Proudly” the International LGTBIQ Pride Day, in collaboration with other areas and with Legaynés (Association of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals, Bisexuals and Intersexuals of the south of Madrid). Leganés will reopen the programming of the platform ‘Pride in Community’ (MADO’26) throughout the region on Friday, June 5 with a central act in the Plaza del Milenio with performances by groups such as ‘El Regreso de la Decade’ and ‘KPOP Blue Moon’, the reading of the manifesto of the Sectoral Council for Equality and the presentation of the Legaynés award.

The Councilor for Equality and Youth, Almudena A. Jiménez, has detailed that “Leganés lives this day in a particularly involved way and, in addition, this year we once again have a prominent role by opening Pride in the Community of Madrid. In a way, we are the town criers of a whole month of activities that raise awareness, sensitize and also celebrate a diversity of which our city is part and is proud”.

Central act with ‘The Return of the Decade’

Almudena A. Jiménez explained that “from the City Council of Leganés and the Delegation of Equality we continue to insist on the need to commemorate 28J by claiming the right of all people to live the life they want to live, in freedom, with dignity and without fear. But we also want to celebrate the progress made, to do so with joy and through a great protest and participatory party in which, once again, the young people of Leganés will have a leading role together with Legaynés”.

This great party will take place in the central act, which this year will be held on Friday, June 5 at 8:30 p.m. in the Plaza del Milenio, in the neighborhood of San Nicasio. The curtain will open with the performance of the dance group ‘KPOP Blue Moon’; boys and girls from Dejóvenes will proceed to read the Manifesto approved by the Sectoral Council for Equality; the Legaynés award will be presented to Federico Armenteros, president of the 26 de Diciembre Foundation; and the Councilor for Equality, Almudena A. Jiménez; and the mayor of Leganés, Miguel Ángel Recuenco.

As a culmination of the event, from 9:00 p.m. ‘El Regreso de la Decade’, the group that won the award at the Benidorm Festival in 2006, will perform; and the closing will be the performance of DJ Lara Cáceres.

Exhibition “Couples of a Past Time”

The Councilor for Equality added that, “in addition, we have prepared other activities that seek to raise awareness through entertainment and culture, such as the screening and subsequent colloquium of the films Muy Lejos and Maspalomas, or an exhibition on LGTBI couples through history, among other proposals”.

The exhibition is entitled “Couples of a past time” and has been promoted by Pablo Peinado Céspedes, from the Visible Cultural Association, with period images from the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. It can be visited from 1 to 30 June in the Equality space of the Rosa Luxemburg Centre.

It is a set of images (mostly originals and same-sex couples) with which they seek to show how the representation of gay and lesbian couples has evolved in the history of photography. There are 29 photographs of couples of men and women, 16 of them anonymous and the rest authored. Among the most renowned photographers are Isabel Muñoz, Juan Hidalgo, Diana Mines, Bruce of Los Angeles and Alfonso.

Film screenings

As for cinema, the film “Maspalomas” will be screened at the Isidoro López Luna Theater (CC Julián Besteiro), on June 9 at 6:30 p.m.; and “Muy lejos”, on June 22 at 6:30 p.m.

More activities and full programme

Among the rest of the activities, there will be a collective creation of an artistic installation built of cardboard and recycled materials; there will be workshops against LGTBIphobia, writing workshops, self-defense or “proud” talks and “weaving identities”. You can check the program with all the activities of Proudly 2026 at this link.