More than 4,000 people set off along Las Ramblas. They walked slowly, conscious of the weight of every step, knowing that what they were doing was unprecedented, risky and, at the same time, inevitable.
They had spent years living in the shadows, hiding their identities under Franco's dictatorship and its laws that criminalised sexual dissent. That Sunday in June, they stepped into the light for the first time. Their slogan was in Catalan, and it was a declaration of existence:
