The equality division of the Formentera Council’s social welfare department has joined with another arm of the administration, the department of culture, in organizing a series of activities to take place next week and the second week in November to mark October 21 as International Day of Action for the Depathologisation of Trans* Identities (the asterisk denotes the inclusion of a diverse range of gender identities, ie. trans, transsexual, transgender).

Programming

At 8.00pm on Tuesday October 23, Mar C Llop will unveil a photo exhibit entitled Construccions Identitàries. The artist says “the project captures the bodily processes already , familiar to transgender people, it shows the human face, trans people and their families, and it captures the secrecy that so frequently accompanies crossdressing’. Mar C Llop will be present for the evening event.

At 8.00pm on Thursday October 25, the cinema (Sala de Cultura) will host a screening of En Femme, a documentary by filmmaker Alba Barbé that deals with transvestism, the practice of dressing in clothes normally associated with the opposite gender to the one a person was assigned at birth. Formentera is the first island in the Balearics to host a screening.

Associated workshops have been scheduled for Thursday October 25 and Friday October 26 at Marc Ferrer secondary school. Més enllà del bullying deals with sexual and gender diversity as well as ending myriad forms of discrimination. The workshops are designed to lend a global counterpoint to a week of LGTBI visibility and trans depathologisation.

Social welfare secretary Vanessa Parellada says “our goal was to reach out to the schoolchildren of Formentera about issues of sexual and gender diversity, and educate people in not discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, identity or gender expression’. The secretary also pointed to group La lio Parda’s November run of theatre workshops to address the same issues with year three pupils at IES Marc Ferrer and year five and six pupils in primary.

Last up is Balearic company Baal’s production of the Catalina Carrasco-directed Crotch, a show that is by turns fragile, provocative, aggressive, funny and responsible as it offers a panoramic view of gender from (in)equality to sexual identity.

The central goal is to bring light and visibility to bodies, tolerance and sexuality, suggesting gender’s disappearance as the solution to gender inequality. This innovative experiment is artistically, socially and politically engaged.

Recommended for viewers 18 and up, Crotch comes to Formentera’s Sala de Cultura (cinema) 8.30pm on Saturday November 10.

The Formentera Council's social welfare bureau reports that from 7.00pm this Tuesday, October 23, the Marià Villangómez library will host an initiation into Salam al català, a language-learner's guide made to introduce Catalan to the Balearic Islands' Arabic-speaking communities.

The guide is produced by Plataforma per la Llengua, an initiative offering Muslim newcomers to the region language instruction.

Plataforma per la Llengua is an NGO that strives to promote Catalan as a driver of social cohesion. The group works in different places the language is spoken, with cross-cutting socioeconomic and audiovisual approaches to welcoming immigrants and initiating them into the Catalan language on university campuses, in schools and in the public sector, among other areas.

Following the presentation there will be a discussion with Bernat Joan (sociolinguist), Iris Palomo (immigration department specialist), Wassima Bouhia (a recent arrival and Arabic speaker on the island) and Maria Teresa Ferrer (head of the Formentera chapter of the OCB). Moderation duties will be handled by Vicent Ferrer (linguist and teacher).

The Formentera Council's social welfare department announces that from Monday October 22 to Friday November 2, islanders can sign up to take part in the eleventh round of social and cultural integration classes. Space is available for 15, and the twice-weekly lessons —a total of 20 hours of instruction from March 6-28— will take place in the large classroom of the Formentera adult learning centre.

Course content
The classes are mainly geared towards immigrants, particularly those wishing to renew their residence permit, prepare for the CCSE citizenship test or demonstrate integration during the early phases of their stay in Spain.

Topics covered will include Spain's constitutional values, human rights and civil liberties, the Balearic Statute of Autonomy, the European Union and gender equality, among others. The courses are aimed at familiarising students with the various subjects and helping them obtain the associated accreditation from the Balearic regional government.

Signups are open to all. Visit the social welfare department (àrea de Benestar Social) during normal office hours or phone them at 971 321 271.

Yesterday the Formentera Council's social welfare department unveiled the island's very first “equality plan” before local community leaders in the Consell d'Entitats. Fruit not only of collaboration between distinct arms of the Council but also of the involvement of hometown associations and a broad array of community stakeholders, the strategic plan focuses on problems and needs specific to one group on the island in particular—women.

Social welfare department head Vanessa Parellada highlighted the plan's 13 objectives and all-encompassing 53 key measures, covering everything from promoting healthy work-family balance and non-gender-biased encouragement of leisure and sport to “creating a more egalitarian society and working to end gender violence”.

The first of its kind, the equality action plan arose from the findings of La Radial, a research and social-work group. It establishes five action areas (Work-family balance; Equal participation, leisure and free time; Towards a more egalitarian culture; Social care and gender violence; Incorporating a gender-based perspective at the Council level) as well as 13 goals and 53 key actions for the first four-year period. Each action area has an accompanying timeframe for completion based on progress during the four years.

With presentation before the Consell d'Entitats now complete, the strategic plan will be put to a vote in the October plenary session, followed by a public review period allowing islanders the opportunity to air comments.