This evening at the Palacio de Cibeles, the Regional Secretary of Transport, Housing and Infrastructure, Pedro Rollán, in his capacity of President de Metro Madrid, collected the Diversa Institutional Prize 2017, awarded to Metro Madrid by the Diversa Global Association, in recognition of its firm commitment to the defence and official recognition of the situation of the LGTBI collective.

The presentation of the prize, which in 2016 was awarded to the President of the Community of Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes, in its Diversa Global personal version, took place in the course of a charity dinner held at the Palacio de Cibeles.

Metro has earned this recognition after undertaking a series of measures in the last few months aimed at the integration of this collective in the everyday life of the metro. Notable amongst these measures is the announcement, for the first time in the Company’s history, of the non-stop operation of the Underground service from Saturday 1 to Sunday 2 July, so as to assure the mobility of the millions of people who will be attending World Pride.

The Diversa Global Association gives its active cooperation to companies and institutions of all kinds so as to promote and foment diversity as a real value in the integration and reinforcement of society. For Diversa Global the award winners “are an example of effort in defence of the equality of rights and visibilization of diversity as an inclusive and truly positive value in any environment”.

As well as Metro Madrid, the award winners this year include amongst others: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Diversa Award of Honour; Coca-Cola, Diversa Company Award; Telemadrid, Diversa Communication Award; Gran Wyoming and El Intermedio, Diversa Communicator Award; Baroness Thyssen and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and Foundation, Diversa Prize to Culture, and the former US ambassador in Spain, James Costos.

Metro Madrid cooperates actively with the associations that represent the LGTBi collective in the Community in the implementation of actions aimed at promoting true equality, non-discrimination and the fight against homophobic aggressions. As an example of this policy, Metro maintains a framework cooperation agreement with the Madrid Observatory against LGTBphobia, which permits ongoing contact with representatives of the collective and the running of joint actions, such as training and awareness workshops attended during the month of May by Metro Madrid Security, Civil Defence and Operational Staff so as to make a contribution from the Underground to the fight against aggressions and discrimination in the metro network.

In addition, so as to promote the integration of the image of the collective both within and outside the metro network, the Company undertakes visibilization and awareness campaigns aimed at users. Foremost amongst these is the campaign “Si te agreden, llama al 112 (If they attack you, call 112), whereby publicity if given to the Observatory, a service supplementary to the 112, which has the main purpose of establishing a working network in the Community of Madrid to record, report and fight against hatred offences directed at the LGTB collective; the campaign “El orgullo viaja en Metro (Gay Pride travels by Metro)”, set into operation in 2015 to coincide with the holding of the Gay Pride Festival; and the campaign “For the real equality of lesbians, gays, transsexuals and bisexuals”, in which as many as five associations in the Community of Madrid took part.