Over Azpeitia
In Azpeitia, change began with listening. In this Basque town of 15,300 inhabitants, the local LGBTIQ+ community had long lived in silence, but a participatory diagnostic process, involving community members, political stakeholders and social actors, gave that silence a name. What it revealed was not merely unmet need, but entrenched discrimination.
The response was proportionate to what had been heard. The LGBTIQ+ Plan 2024–2028, guided by a dedicated Department of Feminist and LGBTIQ+ Policy, is built around reparation and memory as much as rights and visibility. A book of testimonies gives voice to experiences long left unspoken. A large public mural makes pride a permanent feature of the townscape. The first LGBTIQ+ Memory and Reparation Conference opened a collective conversation that had never taken place. A community-led LGBTIQ+ Assembly ensures that those the plan serves are the ones shaping it.
Azpeitia's approach does not stop at a single strand. Dialogue processes reaching persons with disabilities, people of diverse ethnic backgrounds and older persons weave an intersectional thread throughout its work.
Finalist video