Madrid City Council has produced a new video to mark the occasion of LGBTI Pride 2018, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in the capital this year. The audiovisual production stresses diversity, featuring people with disparate identities, ages and racial backgrounds, and makes a concerted effort to increase the visibility of transsexuality and the elderly in the LGBTI community.

The initiative aims to promote and strengthen the city of Madrid's position as a global benchmark for diversity, inclusiveness and commitment to upholding human rights in general and LGBTI rights in particular. The brief but moving video sends the message that Madrid is an open city where everyone is free to be whoever they want to be and love whoever they want to love, a message that’s embodied in the slogan chosen by the capital: ‘Whoever you love, Madrid loves you’. This slogan received the Diversa 2018 award for Best Advertising Campaign from the Diversa Global Foundation.

The audiovisual production, which was completed three weeks ago, consists of a conversation between two elderly women who are remembering when they first arrived in Madrid and talking about how life has changed since then, and how different it is now. The video aspires to pay tribute to the freedom that distinguishes Madrid and the long path, involving years of struggle, which led to the attainment of certain freedoms. 

Various characters in the video are real, and some of them also took part in ‘The Best of My Life’, a documentary by Fernando González Molina that tells the story of the struggles and hardship overcome by six members of the LGBTI community whose paths crossed in Madrid during World Pride 2017.

Madrid, a destination for LGBTI tourism
Following the success of the 2017 edition of WorldPride in Madrid, the City Council's Tourism Department has continued to develop its strategy to promote the city as a leading destination for LGBTI tourism. To this end it has launched various initiatives aimed at the professional tourism sector and the media, with the aim of strengthening the excellent international position attained by Madrid after it hosted WorldPride. 

In this audiovisual production, Madrid promotes itself as a capital city that the community will find welcoming, respectful and full of freedom; a benchmark for diversity and one of the top LGBTI cities in the world. These traits, which are hallmarks of the city, are embodied in the message espoused by the City Council's Tourism Department as part of its promotional strategy: ‘Whoever you love, Madrid loves you’.