Thousands of people responded to Inter-LGBT’s call for the 2021 Pride March this Saturday, June 26. In a good-natured atmosphere and under the slogan “More rights, less blabla”, members of the queer community marched from the city of Seine-Saint-Denis to the Place de la République.–
The sound of the drums mingles with the roar of the motorcycles of the Gai Moto Club, decorated with rainbow flags, which lead the way. It is 3 p.m. this Saturday, June 26, when a cheerful crowd rushes down Avenue Jean-Lolive in Pantin, in the direction of Place de la République in Paris. The Inter-LGBT, which brings together some sixty associations (Aides, Acceptess-T, Act Up, Association of homoparental families …) and organizes the event, has decided that for the first time the meeting point of the Marche des Fiertés would be in Seine-Saint-Denis. An initiative that Matthieu Gatipon, spokesperson for Inter-LGBT, explains to Release : “Not all the organizers and participants live in a triplex in the Marais.”
For Youssef Belghmaidi, racialized trans woman and activist of the Saint-Denis Ville au Cœur association, “it’s really nice that the Pride starts from the town of Pantin ”. In his eyes, these thousands of LGBTQ + people gathered in Seine-Saint-Denis send a strong message: “This shows that we are making progress in this strategy of demonizing popular neighborhoods. This shows that unlike the constant talk about insecurity, which gives the impression that working-class suburbs and immigration are a danger to France, one can have a queer life here.The presence of Pride in Pantin is also a positive signal for all queer people in the suburbs, who can sometimes feel neglected. A first step, Youssef hopes, towards other advances: “What we really want are centers with staff trained to welcome and support LGBTQ + people. No queer person should be isolated.»
The heart is at the party
This gathering is also an opportunity to break the loneliness engendered by the health and social crisis. While the 2020 edition of the official Pride had been canceled due to the Covid-19 epidemic, and even if there are no floats or podiums to dance on this year, the atmosphere is festive. Glitter on eyes and LGBTQ + flags in hand, protesters give voice and sing in chorus the Dumpling, Diams song in the 2000s, with particular emphasis on the following lines: “And I piss off Marine just because it sounds bad (pleasure, editor’s note).»
The face made up in the colors of the rainbow under his glasses, Mathis, 23, was adorned with a huge LGBTQ + flag. It came “for the festive side” and because “it’s always nice to see that there are so many of us“. But behind this giant celebration of queer pride there are real claims. Mathis affirms it: he thinks more and more that he would like to have a child later. However, as a gay man, “starting a family today is complicatedHe says.
Political demands
The demand for the rights of queer people is the slogan given by the Inter-LGBT for this pride march: “More rights, less talk! Too many promises, we regress! ” Jade, 11, came with her mother, “to defend our pride and to say that it is not because we are LGBT that we should be excludedShe says timidly. Her mother, Sandrine, insisted on taking her daughter: “Jade is gay and I support her very much. It’s great to be here, because the more we demonstrate, the more rights LGBT people will have and the less they will be discriminated against.»
This political craze also convinced Florence (1) to travel this Saturday. “It’s been a long time since I came to Pride because the ambulatory funfair atmosphere no longer attracted me. This protest march, which starts from Pantin, speaks well to me ”, enthuses this “dyke»- as she claims – 37 years old. “We want political marches in which we express our anger.»Dressed soberly, brown cap on her head, she wears neither multicolored makeup nor flag. By demonstrating this Saturday, she wants to denounce the fact that the rights of LGBTQ + people “advance at ants pace».
For Florence, the urgency is to de-maritalization of the Disabled Adult’s Allowance (AAH), because the current system “creates terrible addictive situationsAnd the enlargement of the PMA. “I have a lot of friends who have done artisanal PMA or abroad and who find themselves in completely crazy legal issues. It creates a lot of problems in the life of the children. I would like us to finally accept the idea that a family is not necessarily a mom and dad. This has not been the case for thirty years, and despite that, the Assembly is still debating it today.»
For some demonstrators, the possible final vote of the National Assembly, this Tuesday, June 29, of the bioethics bill which should extend the PMA (medically assisted procreation) to single women and female couples, is not enough. “We also demonstrate for our own rights, including trans parentage.” Lucas, a 20-year-old trans and gay man, deplores being excluded from this project. “Me, for example, I made my change of marital status [son genre «homme» est inscrit sur ses papiers d’identité, plutôt que le sexe qui lui a été assigné à la naissance, ndlr]. I can bear a child. However, today, if I have a baby, to be declared a father, I would have to give birth under X and adopt my child afterwards. This is not normal.”
The cost of gender transitions and the difficulties encountered by transgender people from an administrative and medical point of view, surrogacy (Surrogacy), the violated rights of intersex people… Throughout the Pride March, which has reached the Place de la République at the end of the afternoon, the demonstrators recalled how long the road for equal rights for LGBTQ + people remains.
– .
