With a crochet mural sporting a portrait and quote from famed Spanish writer Federico García Lorca, created by the artist behind the mural of Vice President Harris at D.C.’s Wharf, the Embassy honors Pride Month, as well Spain’s commitment to LGBTI+ rights and the community’s contributions to Spanish society.
Displayed at the entrance of the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain in Columbia Heights and commissioned by the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain, the 10 foot wide mural was created by Los Angeles-based artist, London Kaye. For this Pride project, LGBTI+ members of Kaye’s public art collective, Love Across the USA, crocheted individual pieces of the mural, installed this week in Washington.
On the flag of freedom, I embroidered the greatest love of my life.
From Mariana Pineda by Federico García Lorca
The project follows the momentum of the Embassy’s participation in the 2019 Capital Pride Parade, the last one celebrated in the city since the pandemic. Adding to a variety of outdoor art installations as part of its cultural program, this year the Embassy’s Cultural Office chose this public display of support, not only to the LGBTI+ community, but to its intersection with the arts.
A pioneer in LGBTI+ rights, in 2005, Spain became the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage for all citizens and the first to establish equality in regard to adoption by same-sex couples. Today, LGBTI+ rights are a key part of Spain’s foreign policy agenda in the area of human rights. A member of the United Nations LGBTI Core Group, Spain actively contributed to the EU Guidelines on the rights of LGBT+ people, adopted in 2013.
Domestically, Spanish society has also demonstrated its support for inclusion and equality:
- 89% of Spaniards believe that LGBT+ people should have the same rights as heterosexuals, the 3rd highest in the EU
- 83% believe that transgender people should be able to change their civil documentation to adapt it to their identity, the highest in the EU1