The LGBTQ+ Community in Setúbal

On 4 October 2025 Setúbal held its first-ever Pride march – 25 years after Lisbon’s inaugural march and the first in the district’s history. Organised by the non-partisan collective Qardume, the event drew 400–500 people and marked a turning point for LGBTQ+ visibility outside Portugal’s two largest cities.

Portugal’s legal framework

Portugal has undergone a profound transformation in LGBTQ+ rights since the fall of the Estado Novo dictatorship. Under the authoritarian regime (1933–1974), homosexuality was criminalised under “morality” provisions of the Penal Code, and LGBTQ+ people faced police surveillance, social ostracism and forced psychiatric treatment. The Carnation Revolution of 1974 began a slow process of liberalisation, though legal change took years to materialise. Key milestones:

On the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map, which rates countries on a 0–100% scale for LGBTQ+ legal protections and policies, Portugal scores 67% – above the European average but below the top performers (Iceland, Malta, Belgium). The remaining gaps include inconsistent implementation of anti-discrimination protections at the local level, the absence of a national action plan specifically addressing LGBTQ+ rights, and limited data collection on anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. Portugal’s trajectory is nonetheless remarkable: from criminalisation to constitutional protection in just over two decades, a speed of legal change that outpaced most of Western Europe.

Qardume Coletivo

Qardume (a play on the Portuguese word cardume, meaning “shoal of fish”) is a non-partisan collective founded in Setúbal to promote LGBTQ+ rights and visibility at the local level.

• Nature: Non-partisan, grassroots collective
• Contact: [email protected]
• Focus: Advocacy, community-building and cultural events

The collective’s name evokes collective movement and solidarity – a shoal moves as one. Qardume emerged from informal networks of LGBTQ+ residents who recognised that the district lacked any organised advocacy structure. While Lisbon and Porto had established organisations such as ILGA Portugal and rede ex aequo, the Setubal District had no equivalent. Qardume filled this gap, quickly moving from social media presence to on-the-ground organising.

The collective organised the city’s first Pride march and has since become the primary LGBTQ+ advocacy voice in the Setubal District. Its work centres on making queer life visible in a medium-sized city where such visibility has historically been limited. Beyond the march, Qardume engages in public education, letter-writing campaigns to municipal authorities, and partnerships with other civil society organisations in the region.

The first Pride march

Context

Lisbon held its first Pride march in 2000. Porto followed in 2006. For a quarter of a century, no city in the Setúbal District had organised a comparable event. The 25-year gap illustrates a broader pattern: LGBTQ+ visibility and organising capacity have historically lagged outside Portugal’s major urban centres, even as the national legal framework advanced rapidly.

4 October 2025

The 1st Marcha do Orgulho LGBTQIA+ de Setúbal took place on Saturday, 4 October 2025. Key details:

• Attendance: 400–500 people
• Route: Parque do Bonfim – Avenida 5 de Outubro – Praca de Bocage – Largo Jose Afonso
• Organiser: Qardume Coletivo

The route was symbolically charged. It began in Parque do Bonfim, the city’s main public park, passed through the central Avenida 5 de Outubro – one of Setubal’s main commercial arteries – and crossed Praca de Bocage, the historic main square named after the 18th-century poet. The march concluded at Largo Jose Afonso – the square named after the revolutionary singer-songwriter whose music became the soundtrack of the Carnation Revolution. The choice of endpoint connected LGBTQ+ liberation to the broader democratic tradition of the 25 de Abril. By marching through the physical heart of the city, participants made a deliberate claim to public space and mainstream visibility.

The manifesto

The march was preceded by the publication of a manifesto that gathered over 100 signatures from individuals and organisations across the district. Its central declaration:

“Somos Setubal. Periferia e centro, centro e periferia.” (“We are Setubal. Periphery and centre, centre and periphery.”)

The manifesto framed the march as both a celebration and a political act. It argued that LGBTQ+ people in smaller cities face a double periphery: geographic distance from the capital’s resources and social distance from full acceptance in their own communities. The document called for greater investment in local support structures and for the municipality to adopt an explicit LGBTQ+ inclusion policy.

Cultural programme

The march included performances and cultural interventions:

• Alarido – a Setubal-based choir that performed at the event, bringing music and collective voice to the march
• Fado Bicha – a queer fado duo known for reinterpreting the traditional Portuguese genre through a queer lens. Formed in Lisbon, the duo combines traditional Portuguese guitar with provocative, gender-nonconforming performance. Their presence connected the march to a broader national movement of LGBTQ+ artists reclaiming Portuguese cultural forms

Community organisations and support

Queer Setubal

Queer Setubal is a community meetup group that provides regular, informal social gatherings for LGBTQ+ people in the city.

• Schedule: 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of every month
• Format: Social meetups in local venues

The group fills an important gap. In cities without dedicated LGBTQ+ bars or community centres – as is the case in Setubal – regular, predictable meeting points are essential for community formation and mutual support, particularly for those who may be isolated or recently arrived. The biweekly rhythm provides continuity and reliability, allowing newcomers to join at any time without needing prior connections or introductions.

SEIES LGBTI Group

The Cooperativa SEIES (Cooperativa de Solidariedade Social) operates an LGBTI support group at the Centro de Cidadania Activa in Setubal.

• Nature: Anonymous, confidential support
• Setting: Centro de Cidadania Activa
• Provider: Cooperativa SEIES

The group offers a safe space for LGBTQ+ individuals to discuss personal challenges, access information about rights and services, and connect with others. Confidentiality and anonymity are core principles – an important feature in a mid-sized city where social networks are tightly knit and the fear of being identified can be a barrier to seeking help.

Challenges

Hate crimes

Despite progressive legislation, LGBTQ+ people in Portugal continue to face violence and discrimination. According to national data, hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity increased by 38% in 2023 compared with the previous year. While the increase is partly attributable to improved reporting mechanisms, it also reflects persistent hostility.

Setubal-specific data on hate crimes is not publicly available, which itself represents a challenge: without local statistics, it is difficult to assess the true scale of the problem or to design targeted interventions.

The visibility gap

The 25-year gap between Lisbon’s first Pride march (2000) and Setubal’s (2025) is not merely a chronological curiosity. It reflects structural differences between the capital and smaller cities:

• Fewer dedicated spaces: Setubal has no LGBTQ+-specific bars, clubs or community centres
• Smaller critical mass: Organising requires a threshold of visible, active community members – harder to achieve in a city of 120,000
• Social proximity: In smaller cities, anonymity is more difficult; coming out carries greater social risks in tightly connected communities
• Limited institutional support: Municipal LGBTQ+ policies and funding are less developed than in Lisbon or Porto

Access to services

LGBTQ+-specific health services, including mental health support and gender-affirming care, remain concentrated in Lisbon and Porto. Residents of the Setubal District must often travel to the capital for specialised care, creating barriers of time, cost and accessibility. The Centro Hospitalar de Setubal does not offer a dedicated gender identity clinic, and referrals to Lisbon’s Hospital de Santa Maria or Hospital Curry Cabral can involve waiting periods of several months. For LGBTQ+ migrants – who may face compounded barriers of language, legal status and cultural unfamiliarity – access to these services is particularly difficult.

Cultural impact

The emergence of visible LGBTQ+ life in Setubal is part of a wider cultural shift in Portugal. Artists and cultural producers are increasingly working at the intersection of queer identity and Portuguese tradition:

• Fado Bicha – the queer fado duo that performed at the Setubal Pride march – has gained international recognition for reimagining fado as a vehicle for queer expression. Their work challenges the perception of fado as inherently conservative
• Alarido – the local choir’s participation in the march demonstrated that LGBTQ+ culture in Setubal is not imported but homegrown, rooted in the city’s own artistic community
• The growing visibility of LGBTQ+ themes in Portuguese cinema, literature and music provides a cultural context in which local initiatives like Qardume can find resonance and support
• The Portuguese documentary and independent film scene has increasingly explored queer narratives, and festivals such as Queer Lisboa (founded 1997) and Porto Femme (founded 2017) have created platforms for LGBTQ+ storytelling that inspire grassroots cultural production in smaller cities

Outlook

The first Pride march was a beginning, not an endpoint. The manifesto’s call for municipal engagement, the ongoing work of Queer Setubal and the SEIES group, and the cultural contributions of artists like Fado Bicha and Alarido suggest that LGBTQ+ visibility in Setubal will continue to grow.

Key areas for development include:

• Municipal policy: Adoption of a formal LGBTQ+ inclusion plan by the Camara Municipal
• Local data: Collection of district-level data on discrimination and hate crimes
• Health services: Expansion of LGBTQ+-specific health and mental health services beyond Lisbon
• Youth support: Programmes for LGBTQ+ youth in schools, where bullying remains a significant concern. National surveys consistently report that LGBTQ+ students experience higher rates of harassment, and the absence of local support networks compounds the problem outside major cities
• Institutional partnerships: Collaboration between Qardume, SEIES and the integration programmes already operating in the city, particularly for LGBTQ+ migrants and European expats

The story of the LGBTQ+ community in Setubal is one of late but determined emergence. In a city that has long defined itself through its working-class identity, its fishing heritage and its revolutionary history, the queer community is writing a new chapter – claiming space in the multicultural neighbourhoods and public squares that belong to everyone.

See also

• Integration and Social Programmes
• European Expats in the Setubal Region
• Multicultural Neighbourhoods