An essay on the economic, activist, and tourist background of LGTBI Pride in Spain.

In 2017, the WorldPride took place in Madrid, a more massive, visible, and institutional LGTBI Pride than usual. Diversity, increasingly trendy, was used to sell and persuade. The competition to attract more investments, tourists, and positioning has made LGTBI events like this—from large-scale LGTBI Prides to more modest promotional campaigns—gain more prominence as attractions.

However, this tourist visibility of sexual and gender diversity is not free from criticism: various social movements and academic analyses have highlighted the implications of certain stances and marketing approaches. The variety of bodies and interests represented; the links between business powers, politics, and reformist LGTBI activism; the gentrification of tourist neighborhoods; and the role of sponsorships are just some of the central topics of study and critique.

Through ethnographic research, this book analyzes the celebration of a large-scale event to study how the public tourist promotion of a major city, reformist LGTBI activism, and the images and discourses of sexual and gender diversity interrelate.