SPAIN: Catalonia Region Chamber Passes Controversial Anti-Homophobia Legislation

Spain's autonomous Catalonia region has approved an anti-homophobia bill which requires those accused of anti-LGBT acts to prove they are innocent, rather than be considered so until proven guilty. Via TeleSUR:

The law, passed on Thursday and backed by 80% of the Catalan Chamber, will protect the LGBT community from homophobic attacks. "I feel furious when someone appears to deny or play down the discrimination that we gays have suffered or run the risk of suffering," said Catalan Socialist Miquel Iceta, one of the first politicians to come out as gay. "They speak derisively of a gay lobby. But look at this room! This is not a group of people working undercover to achieve illegitimate goals. This is a group working to defend the rights of everyone," he added. However, the new bill has come under fire from various factions due to the clause that states that the person who is accused of homophobic acts must prove their innocence. On Friday, the bishops of Catalonia expressed their concern that the anti-homophobia law could violate the presumption of innocence and “complicate the liberty of communication in the teachings of Catholic morals.”

More from Gay Star News:

Calling it the "world's most pioneering laws against homophobia," the state-run Catalan News Agency (ACN) reports that it includes fines for homophobic behavior at the work place and positive discrimination measures, such as having to prove one's innocence if accused of homophobia. "This positive discrimination measure is already in place for other offenses, such as domestic violence against women, in instances when it is very difficult to prove," the ACN report said. The new provisions will punish those who attack gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals with fines of up to €14,000 ($17,700). According to a study on hate crimes, the first of its kind, published by the government, it showed that out of the 1,172 hate crimes recorded in 2013, a majority (452) were based on the victim's sexual orientation, followed by race (381) and disabilities (290).

Catalonia Rallies For Independence

Hundreds of thousands of independence activists today attempted to create a 250-mile human chain across Spain's Catalonia region.

The human chain was planned on a traditional regional holiday that last year saw more than one million people come out in protest in Barcelona, the largest show of separatist sentiment since the 1970s. The chain, named the Catalan Way, was due to link 86 towns and villages along the coast to push for a referendum on political self-determination for Catalonia in 2014. Catalonia is a wealthy industrial region in northeastern Spain that accounts for a fifth of the country's economic output. The protest aims to generate international media coverage of the referendum drive, which is resisted by the central government in Madrid. Artur Mas, Catalonia's regional leader, has promised to hold an independence referendum in 2014, but has been unable to get the Spanish government's approval.

VIDEO: Ex-pats and supporters in San Francisco created their own human chain too.

Separatists Win In Catalonia

Pro-secession parties won a commanding number of seats yesterday in Spain's Catalonia region.

Flying pro-independence flags - a lone star against yellow and red stripes - Catalan voters on Sunday handed 87 seats, almost two-thirds of the local parliament, to four different parties that want a referendum on secession. But voters also punished the movement's figurehead, Catalan President Artur Mas. His Convergence and Union alliance, or CiU, remains the biggest party in the local parliament, but it lost 12 seats and Mas will have to form an alliance with another party to govern. Mas had tried to ride the separatist wave after hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in the streets in September, demanding independence for Catalonia, which has its own language and sees itself as distinct from the rest of Spain. But Mas only recently backed Catalan independence, and while he stirred up enthusiasm for the idea, in the end he drove voters into the arms of parties seen as more genuinely representative of the separatist cause.

The Guardian weighs in on the vote:

Unlike the Scottish referendum set for 2014 in agreement with London, the central government in Spain has pledged to block an independence vote for Catalonia by appealing to the constitutional court, which stopped the Basque country from holding a similar plebiscite in 2008. Apart from opposition in Madrid, one of Mas's biggest difficulties is uncertainty over whether a newly independent Catalonia could remain within the European Union and the euro. The European commission president, José Manuel Barroso, said in Spain last weekend that EU treaties required breakaway states to join the queue for membership.

Catalonia Votes Today On Secession

Spain's Catalonia region is voting today on secession. If the pro-secession party wins a majority, a referendum on independence would likely follow within two years.

More than 8,000 polling stations opened across the northeastern region at 9 a.m. local time today to select 135 lawmakers who will decide whether to press on with regional President Artur Mas’s plan for a referendum on independence. Voting ends at 8 p.m. with exit polls expected soon afterward. The first results may be announced as early as 8:30 p.m. Catalans are set to hand nationalist parties a majority in the regional parliament, putting them on a collision course with Rajoy’s national government in Madrid, which has held that a referendum on secession would be unconstitutional. Mas was on track to claim 62 seats and the separatist Catalan Republican Left another 18, according to a Metroscopia poll published Nov. 18 before the pre-election blackout period.

In September more than 1.5 million Catalans demonstrated for independence in Barcelona.

SPAIN: Catalonia Rallies For Secession

Spain's faltering economy brought out the largest crowd yet seen for Catalonia's annual independence march.

A million and a half people took to the streets of Barcelona, according to police estimates, to demand independence for the autonomous Spanish region of Catalonia as the country as a whole faces crippling debt. ­At least one train and more than 1,000 coaches were chartered to bring supporters from all over the region to the march. The mob filled the streets with red and yellow Catalan flags, rallying under the slogan "Catalonia, a new European state," chanting “what do the crowds want? A new European state! What do the people want? An independent Catalonia!" A swelling unemployment rate combined with financial instability have fueled the secessionist spirit. Polls published on Tuesday show that 46.4% support the independence bid – twice as many as in 2008, when the financial crisis began, writes The Guardian. The autonomous Spanish community, whose economy is bigger than the entirety of neighboring Portugal's, accounts for a fifth of Spanish output.