Laguna Pride in Venice: “We deserve respect”

Glitter, unicorns, thousand-color flags and mermaid tails. Anything is proudly possible. After 14 years, the strange tide has returned to Venice, with the pride of Laguna, the first of the Meloni era. More than a thousand people have responded to the call from the Queer We Go, Pandora and Fondamenta Queer federations and student groups to reaffirm the right to be free to love whomever you want. Pride is basically a claim. But also a celebration of rights conquered and to be conquered, potential families and those who claim their right to exist, according to the testimony of the mothers of the Rainbow Families Association. “We are here to show that we deserve more respect from the legislator, and our children do not deserve to be annulled as if they were just numbers,” commented liaison officer Irina Shaparava, a week after the Padua Public Prosecutor appealed 33 birth records from 2017 to submit. Parents of gay and transgender boys and girls were also among the protesters. “I am here for my son, the world of adults should support young people” explains Michela Variali, from Treviso. In her hands is a colorful banner with the inscription “If your family does not welcome and support you, then from today I can be your mother.”

The rainbow banners are also in the hands of social workers in the Veneto region. “We are here because our role is also political and is to promote inclusive social policies that overcome discrimination of all kinds. Our mission is to stand together for rights »explains Marco Liberti, Secretary of the Organization.

Pride is the tide. A colorful, noisy and cheerful wave is again taking over the public spaces, which are closed to people with disabilities, who are forced to run into architectural barriers every day. Women are excluded, so they remain a place where male domination is expressed in a crude way, with assaults and rapes. “Often when we walk in this field with our non-conforming bodies, we are trampled and ridiculed. But try it now, because there are too many of us, to call each other sluts »says Giosué of Queer We Go, at Campo Santa Margherita, Venice’s nightlife venue , and is often at the center of news cases of harassment. The demonstrators reiterated the need to overcome individualism in favor of brotherhood which is the true cornerstone of changing society. Pride even before it is a party is a political act, an experience of revolution. “We oppose this homosexual government A homophobic and transphobic group made up of ministers whose being gay is equivalent to being a Milanese supporter. And let us remember that 10% of gay boys in Italy are undergoing conversion therapy,” they repeated, while signs reading “We are not sick” rose skyward from the procession.

Pride is also safety, a safe place where everyone can feel welcome, accepted, and free to be themselves. “I am here to express my individuality, as a black and bisexual woman. In pride, I feel safe and free at home »explains Liddy, from Mestre, waving a rainbow flag ribbon. Around her, people of all ages. Children in strollers, adults in Seniors holding a billboard: “The Witches are Back.” The march is intergenerational, one big ebb and flow that demands rights and respect.
A banner read, “The first pride was riot.” And not only the first, one might say.