“On December 26, 1978, the Council of Ministers of Spain ratified the modification of Law 16/1970 on Dangerousness and Social Rehabilitation. This law, approved by the Franco regime on August 5, 1970 (and which replaced the old Vagrancy and Maleante Law of 1948), punished anyone considered socially dangerous, including people from the LGTBIQ+ community. Under the imposition of this rule, many LGTBIQ+ comrades were unjustly imprisoned, tortured, mistreated, persecuted, humiliated, or subjected to shock treatments. Simply for having a sexual orientation or a sexual or gender identity that did not fit with what the regime wanted. This date – December 26, 1978 – is marked in the history of the LGTBIQ+ community in Spain, continuing their fight for equal rights.
One day, during a break in Gran Canaria, Federico Armenteros saw an older gay man walking towards the sea with the support of his walker. At that moment, he felt pain upon realizing the invisibility of older LGTBIQ+ people. “Where are they?” he wondered. A question that marks the beginning of the development of the December 26 Foundation, which would be constituted on October 25, 2010, with the aim of making older LGTBIQ+ people visible.”