Thousands of protesters in Paris for an impromptu and "political" Gay Pride

Between 2,000 to 3,000 protesters participated Saturday, July 4 in Paris in an impromptu and "political" Pride March, a week after the date initially scheduled for the official Gay Pride, canceled due to the coronavirus.

Gathered behind a truck with a sign "our pride is political", a young and multicultural crowd started from Place Pigalle around 5.30 pm, noted an AFP journalist.

Among the rainbow flags, colored hair and drag queen outfits, the watchwords were incisive: "For a radical pride", "transphobia kills", "a dyke president", or "my body, my like, shut up. "

Pride march #LGBTQ from Pigalle to République #Paris #MarcheDesFiertes # PRIDE2020 pic.twitter.com/0yZ3om5gOE

Rather more political than festive

The official Pride March, organized by the inter-LGBT and initially scheduled for June 27, was postponed to November 7 because of the ban on large gatherings linked to the coronavirus. But for Emma Vallée-Guillard, who answered the improvised call from various LGBT associations, "it was important to celebrate pride anyway".

"The pride at the base, it was a riot", recalls the young woman of 22 years, in reference to the riots of Stonewall in New York in 1969, triggered by a police raid on a bar frequented by homosexuals and who gave birth a year later at the first "Gay Pride".

Without floats and music, Saturday's gathering was more political than festive. "We are here for our rights, to have more," says Lucas Delplanque, pink and blue bisexual flag on his shoulders. This 20-year-old student would like the assaults to be "really punished, to make PMA pass for all LGBT and trans people."

Defending "fundamental rights"

"It is important that we fight so that everyone's rights are respected," says Shadé Djossinou, 22. She came as a "black person" and "ally" of the LGBT movement to participate in this rally which also denounced police violence and racism.

"Our fights have the same goal in the sense that we fight to be respected as a human being," she said.

"The danger of retreating on our fundamental rights is very present and the epidemic has served to reveal multiple factors of exclusion, discrimination and violence," declared AFP Giovanna Rincon, director of the association Acceptess- T, who defends transgender people.

Despite the postponement of the Pride March, "we refuse the confinement of our freedoms and that our bodies be invisible," she concluded.

The year 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Gay Pride, but several hundred Pride Marches around the world had to be canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus.

With AFP

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