Soon there will be more color again through the city. Before the start of “Pride Month”, the NEOS are making people sit up and take notice with a petition.
After a year of forced break due to corona, the Vienna Rainbow Parade back to the ring. On Saturday, June 19th, the demonstration for the rights of LGBTIQ people is set to do its big round. In order to ensure the health of all participants, this year the event will be held as a pure walking and cycling demonstration. There will be a final rally – it is planned in front of the town hall.
The organizing team of the Homosexual Initiative (HOSI) Vienna asks participants “to adhere to the guidelines without exception and to wear an FFP2 mask and to keep a distance of 2 meters from other people in the household.” Set to take place June 7th to 20th.
Another highlight is the Pride Run Vienna, which will take wheelchair users, runners and walkers on their favorite running track on June 18 as a virtual event due to Covid-19 in 2021. All starters will receive a Pride Run shirt (plus medal) by post and will complete their individual route in Vienna. The results can then be uploaded. There are also several political talks, medical vintage, workshops, readings and a queer film night on the program.
No more “umpolungstherapien”
Even before the beginning of “Pride Month”, the Neos have made a demand. They are demanding a ban on so-called “reversal therapy” for homosexual young people from the Turquoise-Green Federal Government. LGBTIQ + spokesman Yannick Shetty on Monday: An end to the “conversion therapies” is “long overdue”, added Vienna’s Vice Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr.
With these “medieval pseudo-therapies” LGBTIQ people are persuaded that their sexual orientation or identity is “sick” and can be treated – “which is not only completely wrong, but often lifelong suffering in the form of depression and self-hatred for those affected or causes suicide attempts, “reads a freshly launched online petition by the Neos. Under www.neos.eu/lgbtiq the demand for a ban can be supported.
New York doesn’t want cops anymore
In New York, where the movement for the rights of gays, lesbians and transgender people once began, an old topic is on the agenda again this year. The organizers of the New York Pride no longer want to allow police officers to participate in the major event. “With immediate effect, the NYC Pride will ban groups of law enforcement agencies and law enforcement officers from attending NYC Pride events until 2025,” it said in advance in a statement.
LGTBQ groups of police officers have also marched at the Pride in recent years. The number of police officers deployed to protect the parade should also be significantly reduced; the organizers say they want to increasingly rely on private security forces. It is a response to calls by the LGTBQ community, which have been going on for years, not to allow a police presence in view of the history of the event.
The parade dates back to the 1969 “Stonewall” riots. At that time, revelers in the popular gay bar “Stonewall Inn” on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village in Manhattan fought against a police raid. On the first anniversary of the riots – more than 50 years ago – around 4,000 people marched through New York and demanded equality, today the annual Christopher Street Day (CSD) commemorates the incidents worldwide. This year’s New York Pride will take place on June 27th in a hybrid form of a virtual and physical parade.
(Ag/Red)
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