Guillem Clua ~ Graduated in journalism from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), he began his writing training at the London Guildhall University (London, Great Britain) in 1994. He is currently considered one of the most innovative and versatile voices of the current national theater. The criticism has defined the work of this author as multidisciplinary, eclectic and with a priority concern for the narrative structure and the argument. Its objective is always to tell stories and make them close to the viewer, using mechanisms of intrigue, comedy or melodrama, a fast paced, and even elements of other media, such as television, Internet and film.

Despite my Catholic upbringing, I felt strong enough to get out of the closet to my family in 1994 and never had to hide my homosexuality. Ever.

That allowed me to explore gay characters in my plays from different points of view, shyly at first. With a clichéd closeted gay character in love with his straight co-worker in my very first play Invisibles. And more bravely later with a young teenage boy looking forward to being infected of HIV by his older lover in Marburg, a love story between two Spanish soldiers during the Afghanistan war in Invasion. Or the unabashed celebration of romantic gay love that is Smiley.

I confess, I felt complacent. I honestly thought the work was done. More and more countries were passing laws granting full rights to the LGBT community. Each Pride was bigger, brighter, louder. We couldn’t go anywhere but forward. You can’t stop progress, right?

But then, the unthinkable happened. In June 2016 terrorist Omar Marteen burst into the Pulse Bar in Orlando and killed 49 people.

It wasn’t the first attack in a gay bar. I remembered the bomb at the Admiral Duncan on Old Compton Street in London. But that was back in 1999.

‘In 2017, 287 hate crimes against LGBT people were reported only in Madrid’

I honestly thought this couldn’t happen again. I was aghast. And then I started hearing more and more voices that said this wasn’t a homophobic attack. The FBI claimed that there wasn’t any evidence that the Orlando shooter targeted Pulse because it was a gay club. I felt outraged. And this is how The Swallow was born. Read more via Gay Star News