a protest rally in Paris

GAY PRIDE – For the first time since its creation, La Marche des Fiertés took off from the suburbs, in Seine-Saint-Denis. What were the main demands of the participants this Saturday, June 26?

[Mis à jour le 28 juin 2021 à 18h35] The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Shemale (LGBT) Pride March, formerly called Gay Pride, has changed routes in Paris, after a small-format parade and a virtual event last year due to the health context. For the first time since its birth in 1977, Parisian Gay Pride took as its starting point a suburban town, Pantin in Seine-Saint-Denis (93) Saturday June 26 to join Place de la République in Paris. “Their pride and their need for visibility do not stop at the perif” explained Inter-LGBT, the organizing association in Île-de-France.

The goal was that “the march resembles the volunteers and people who organize it, who do not all live in a duplex in the Marais but in the suburbs,” says Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette, spokesperson for Inter-LGBT. “This departure outside Paris is historic and creates a link between racialized people and gay life in Paris, which follows the evolution of the community towards more convergence of struggles,” said Erwan Passey, president of Queer Pantin to our colleagues at 20 Minutes.

The Pride March which started from the church of Pantin at 3 p.m., after a regrouping from 1:30 p.m., had neither floats nor podium due to the health context, but the participants were able to wave LGBTQ flags + in a festive and protesting spirit, glitter in the eyes, face made up in the colors of the rainbow. “The majority of the promises we have been made are not kept such as opening up to assisted reproduction, the ban on conversion therapy, or even improving the conditions of transgender people,” said Matthieu Gatipon, spokesperson for Inter-LGBT.

“I would like us to finally accept the idea that a family is not necessarily a dad and a mom. This has not been the case for thirty years, and despite that, the Assembly is debating it. even today, “Florence, a 37-year-old lesbian woman, explained to our colleagues from Liberation who went there. Transgender people were also demonstrating for their rights, like Lucas, a 20-year-old trans and gay man, who lamented being excluded from the bill. “Me, for example, I made my change of marital status. I can bear a child. However, today, if I have a baby, to be declared father, I would have to give birth under X and adopt my child then. . This is not normal.”

It was in June 1969, after a violent police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a legendary gay bar in New York, that the first parade of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people was organized across the Atlantic. These demonstrations, which then turned into a riot for several days, marked the start of the fight for equal LGBT rights. Gay pride will soon be born from this violence with, the following year, a parade in the streets of the city organized by Brenda Howard, bisexual considered today as a pioneer of this fight. Other parades under the sign of “pride” will take place at the same time in Los Angeles or San Francisco, then, a few years later, in Europe, starting with Germany.

Gay Pride will arrive in Paris in 1981. This free and accessible event will gradually bring together more than half a million people in the capital. And it has come a long way, in France too. According to an Ifop poll published last year, 83% of French people now believe that the Pride Marches have helped advance rights for LGBT people. In 2019, it is not a Pride March, but dozens that were organized throughout France throughout the month of June. In Nancy, Lille, or even Saint-Denis, they brought together tens of thousands of people.

Find out more on the official website of the LGBT Pride March, which brings together the associations organizing the event.

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