City Council has chosen municipal premises at C/ Compte Borrell 22 to house the Municipal Centre for LGBTI Resources. The premises consists of a ground floor and upper floor, with a total area of 1,314 square metres.

A participatory process is underway, with the city’s LGBTI entities, to define how the centre will function, setting out the future centre’s roles and services, its characteristics and dynamics. At the moment the premises consists of a single open-plan area, which will be conditioned according to the needs currently being defined.

The resource centre aims to be a public facility for support, information and referrals. In other words, a facility with a range of public services, which will also include areas for entities to offer specialised services.

During the plenary session of the LGBTI advisory body, the municipal government also informed entities it has adopted the resolution proposed by the ombudsman to withdraw the authority delegated to councillors by the Mayor in cases where they object to marrying same-sex couples.

In a communication sent to all elected officials in the municipal corporation, the Mayor explained that based on the case of conscientious objection by an elected official in 2014 who refused to marry a same-sex couple, the ombudsman has ruled that along the lines proposed by the LGBTI advisory board, City Council should formally stipulate that councillors who have an issue with conducting ceremonies of this type should not be able to conduct wedding ceremonies at all. “We believe conscientious objection to marrying same-sex couples violates the rights of the LGBTI collective”, explained the Councillor for Cycle of Life, Feminism and LGBTI, Laura Pérez.

The session by the LGBTI advisory board also involved setting up a work group to monitor the application of the law against LGBTIphobia.