The City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria promotes equality and LGTBI+ rights around the canary lateen sailing
The boats ‘Baifo’ and ‘Tara del Mar’ will promote inclusiveness and equality in the tradition around lateen sailing.
Both teams participate in lateen sailing competitions promoting the sport practice and performing social work.
Equality and Diversity Counsellor from the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Mari Carmen Reyes, has established meetings with these two groups of lateen sailing to stand for equal access to the LGTBI+ community in this particular sport.
One of these teams “Baifos del Mar”, has settled up a plan of integration plan with a team formed by any passionate member despite of his sexual identity who share the love and community culture of this popular sport.
For this reason, this club tries to reach lateen sailing to any person who loves team sports. A sport declared as a Cultural Interest Property in 2016.The other team ‘Tara del Mar’ was founded in 1998 with the objective of competing as a female team of canary lateen sailing club. They wanted to bring women participation in this nautic sport. This team is formed only by women who are interested in learning, earning experience and achieving the best results in every lateen sailing competition.
In this new year 2021 season, ‘Tara del Mar’ raises a challenge to work with underage women, using the sport as a tool of social integration, helping these girls to find alternatives and to channel in a healthy way their own experiences.
Mari Carmen Reyes stressed the importance of giving support from the institutions to these teams, which are fomenting the respect of the human rights and equal participation in this well-known sport of the city. She said that this sport contributes with values of discipline, social habilites and team work and it’s deeply rooted in our canary society. However the LGTBI+ community and women have improved their situation in the world of sports gaining equal rights, there are still many areas where visibilization of equality and diversity of the sexual and gender identity has to be improved.
Lateen sailing is a traditional sport with its own unique characteristics which is practiced in the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria’s bay. It’s own origin dates from the last years of the XIX century.
