In 1992 the National Federation of Gays and Lesbians was founded, at the proposal of the Collective of Gays and Lesbienas of Madrid and other LGBT organisations based in Madrid following their separation from the historic organisation Coordinadora de Frentes de Liberación Homosexual del Estado Español. In time, some groups from different parts of Spain joined the Federation, such as some from Granada and Barcelona, but very slowly. It was the late 1990s when some of the main organisations of the country joined FELG in an attempt build unity to pressure for the approval of a law recognising common law partnerships. Currently, more than 30 associations of all types compose the FELGT. Beginning in 2003, the FELGT was led by Beatriz Gimeno. Previously, Pedro Zerolo and Armand de Fluviá had occupied that position. In March 2007, Beatriz Gimeno decided to begin collaborating with the university and Antoni Poveda came to hold the position of president of the FELGT. In the same meeting it was decided to add the "B" for bisexual to the acronym. 2007 the official name became FELGTB, including bisexual option in the name.
Activism, campaigns, and polemics
The FELGTB demands legal equality and social respect for diversity, is a promoter and convener of the national demonstration on the International Day of LGBT Pride, and fosters the training of its member associations' activists. It has presented several controversial campaigns, such as VOTA ROSA and 2004 NO VOTES PP. Beatriz Gimeno justified this last slogan by pointing out the necessity of a political change to "advance our demands". Esperanza Aguirre, in response to this campaign, stated that sexual orientation doesn't necessarily determine political orientation, and noted that she was convinced that "the majority of gays are going to vote for Esperanza, and are going to vote PP". Ana Botella, number two on the list of the PP in Madrid, limited herself to saying that the demands of the FELGT don't come within the rivalries of the town council. During the negotiation of the same-sex marriage law in Spain, the FELGT criticized the performance of the PP at various times, especially for presenting as an expert the psychiatristAquilino Polaino, who claimed that homosexuality was a pathology. Parallelly, when the Pope visited Valencia, the FELGT participated in the Jornadas Internacionales de Diversidad Familiar and signed up for the collective "Jo no t'espere", which was criticized harshly by the Catholicmedia. Some of those organisations tried to take the FELGT to the attorney general for "the continuous offenses of gay activism". On April 20, 2007, the FELGT described as "incoherent" Mariano Rajoy's declarations about gay weddings, since he was claiming that if his son marries a man he will attend his wedding, while his party has appealed the same-sex marriage law as unconstitutional. On April 28, 2007, FELGT launched the campaign Ni un céntimo para quien te discrimina, coinciding with the income tax filings, encouraging citizens to mark the "social purposes" box instead of the box designated for the Catholic Church.
