Not in the name of LGBT rights

Spanish Feminist Movement organisations demand the organisers of Madrid Pride 2025 refuse to allow associations that promote the legalisation of renting women for reproduction to participate in the celebrations, reminding them that this practice is recognised by law as a form of violence against women

In a letter sent to AEGAL, FELGTBI and COGAM (organisers of Madrid Pride 2025), with copies to all public and private sponsors of Madrid Pride 2025, Spanish feminist organisations denounce the outrageous fact that events and demonstrations celebrating progress in equal civil rights are giving space to discourses that seriously violate the human rights of women and children by promoting, downplaying, normalising or romanticising the exploitation of women’s reproductive capacities.

Feminists remind the promoters that Spain defines surrogacy as a form of violence against women and a violation of their reproductive rights in the Organic Law 2/2010, of March 3rd, on sexual and reproductive health and voluntary termination of pregnancy, and that Article 33 prohibits «any advertising that promotes commercial practices for surrogate pregnancy» in all its forms.

The Spanish Supreme Court has ruled in the same vein in various judgments, stating that the practice of surrogacy violates the dignity of the pregnant woman and the best interests of the child, and that women and children are commodified by treating both as objects that can be traded.

The feminist organisations promoting the letter have begun collecting signatures from associations and individuals. They point out that the LGBT community should not allow its name to be associated with, or its demands to be colonised by, corporations, platforms and individuals who bypass the illegality of surrogacy in Spain by traveling to other countries to exploit the bodies and reproductive capacities of vulnerable women, as well as promoting the sale of children.

The letter is accompanied by a copy of the campaign posters, which are being distributed in the areas where activities related to Madrid Pride 2025 will take place.

Spanish feminist associations have sought to draw the community’s attention to the changing trend of the buyers’ profile, showing that in 2023, same-sex male couples already represented the largest percentage of applications for minors’ registration through surrogacy, according to the report «Analysis of applications for registration in consular civil registries of the filiation of minors born in the context of international surrogacy agreements. Years 2010 to 2023.» [1]

A copy of this letter has been also sent to public sponsors such as Turespaña, the City Council and Community of Madrid, and private sponsors such as Air Europa, Iberia, and Repsol, to the Prime Minister, the Ministries of Justice and Equality, as well as to different European Union and the United Nations institutions.

As women’s movement organizations point out, «public institutions and organisations should not be complicit in financing these events that, with their international impact and public funds, may fail to achieve the high responsibility that citizens and the State have placed in their hands and, in addition, may violate current regulations. Madrid may not become an international showcase for claiming as a right a despicable business that will reach $27.5 billion by 2025, according to a market study by Global Market Insights.

For years, the Pride events have allowed the presence of an association dedicated to, in its own words, renting women’s bodies activism to be considered «as a reproductive right». Feminists remind the organisers of the demonstration that demands for practices that exploit human beings should have no place in the Madrid Pride 2025 celebrations.

Feminists demand the organisers of these celebrations to be categorical in stating that no demands to legalise practices that exploit women should be made in the name of LGBT rights.

Along with the letter sent to the organisers of Madrid Pride, signed by twenty-five organisations and that will be open for new signatures, the Alliance Against the Erasure of Women has designed and printed a poster with the slogan “There is No Pride in the Exploitation of Women”, which has been sent to organisations, companies, institutions and public bodies linked to the LGBT Pride celebrations in Madrid.

[1] Profile of Spanish buyers: 2010-2023: Heterosexual couples: 59% / Same-sex couples: 26% / Single people: 14% In 2023: Heterosexual couples: 33% / Same-sex couples: 43% / Single people: 25%. [Ana Trejo Pulido, 2025]

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