Lesbians during the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

Lesbians during the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (2004–2011) in Spain achieved several legal and cultural milestones, including the right to marry and adopt children.

[3] In July 2007, she was part of the first executive of Thomas Gomez in the Socialist Party of Madrid assuming the Secretariat for Equality Policies 2007 to 2011 and the Electoral Action of 2008 to 2011.

[7] In 2007, Spain was recognized as being one of the most advanced countries in the world when it came to protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender citizens.

[6] Despite the passage of legislation legalizing marriage equality, Partido Popular took the effort to court and tried to find ways to block its inception.

[18] The Catholic Church and Partido Popular argued that lesbians and gays are unequal citizens, existing in a special other category of citizenship.

[1] The parliamentary speech of Rosa M. Bonás Pahisa on 30 June 2005 about the passage of Law 13/2005, the marriage equality act, said its impact would be neutral as it came to lesbian and gay relationships.

This resulted in the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (FELGTB) accusing Partido Popular of homophobia.

[9] Lesbian and gay men began to have asymmetrical rights when it comes to options to become parents in this period following the ability for same-sex couples to adopt.

[25] In procedures such as  artificial insemination or IVF for married lesbian couples, the non-child bearing spouse could have her name put down on the parent line traditionally reserved for fathers.

[9] The ability of lesbian couples to procreate in this period served to challenge Spanish concepts of the nuclear family with one mother and one father.

[9] In 2006, PSOE promised lesbian couples that they would review Article 6 of the Law of Assisted Reproduction to see about giving non-gestating spouses automatic paternity rights.

In 2002, one member of the couple died and in December of that year, she filed a claim with Spanish Social Security to try to collect a widow's pension.

[27] In 2009, the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero provided a grant of €28,810 to support research about the situation of lesbians and gays in Zimbabwe.

[28] In December 2004, Directive 2004/113 / EC of the European Council was published, asserting that men and women should have equal access to the supply of goods and services.

[30] Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon made a speech in September 2010 calling for countries to abolish laws that are discriminatory against lesbians and gays.

[33] Businesses see the community as a market composed of only gays and lesbians, Madrid City Council consultant for Diversity Consulting Juan Pedro Tudela said of commercialization of Madrid Pride, "Hotel chains do not universalize, normalize; we are a segment, not a collective ... and I speak of gays and lesbians, because bisexuals and transsexuals are not a segment ...

[35][34] The Women's Area of the Fundación Triángulo de Madrid has explained the invisibility of lesbians in this and other periods as, "A gay man has always been able to move to another place, seeking to live his identity in freedom.

"[36] According to Mexican feminist Gloria Careaga, feminism often  "moves away from aspects such as sexuality and intimate life to focus on the social and the political.

One woman told El Pais about her decision to protest, "The church calls us witches and sinners to decide on our body and our sexuality.

"[38] The success of Spain's marriage equality in this period made it easier for many lesbians in Latin America to finally come out of the closet.

[46] Downsides for lesbians as it relates to same-sex marriage included cultural pressure to follow heterosexual relationship models around monogamy, cohabitation and sharing of economic assets.

[39][17] South America Despite advances in Spanish society, lesbians were still more likely to remain in the closet at work than gay men for a number of reasons.

[33] Despite the overt commercialization of Madrid Pride by the end of this period, COGAM and FELGTB still tried to maintain symbols and markers that indicated they were really activists involved in a protest.

[35] Outside Restaurante José Luis in 2010, a lesbian couple alleged that they were insulted and hit on the face by an elderly man on the street after they kissed in the restaurant.

[56] In October 2010, the Partido Popular run City of Valencia changed the filters on government computers that led to sexual diversity being associated with pornography, with searches of words like lesbiana being blocked as a result.

The LGBT activist group Lambda opposed such linking and claimed such filters were problematic as lesbians and other sexual minorities need to be able to access information useful to them at public municipal centers like libraries.

[59]  They had already succeeded with similar efforts with Royal Galician Academy earlier in the year who agreed to change the definition of marriage and pedophilia.

It wanted to people to avoid using the word homosexual or gay and instead use LGTB so as not to erase and to increase the visibility of lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals.

The book was important when it was first published in 2001 in terms of consolidating the lesbian fiction genre inside Spain, and featured homoerotic depictions.

[67] Love in troubled times (Spanish: Amar en tiempos revueltos) aired from 2005 to 2012 on RTVE, with the show set in the Francoist period.