In Lisbon, the pandemic has led to the cancellation of a scheduled LGBTI Pride demonstration today, and in London, which is usually heavily attended, the march has been postponed for similar reasons.
In Berlin, protesters followed three routes towards Alexanderplatz, in the center of the German capital, in a format designed to avoid crowds too large due to the covid-19 pandemic, but to reflect the diversity of the LGBTI community.
In Italy, thousands of Pride participants gathered in Rome and some small towns.
With a proposed anti-LGBTI hate crime law sitting in the Italian Senate for months, the Vatican and right-wing political leaders are lobbying for the repeal of several stipulated provisions.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who marched in the city, said he was concerned that those who objected to the anti-homophobia bill were trying to debate it only to tie him up and eventually kill him.
Sala justified his participation in the march as a sign in defense of the passage of the law and in support of “the just rights of this entire wonderful community.”
The general mood of tens of thousands of participants in the Paris event was festive after almost a year and a half of restrictions imposed by the pandemic on meetings and communication.
Half of French adults have already taken at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, prompting many protesters to take part in parades without masks.
Many participants in Paris expressed dismay at the backlash from human rights defenders in Hungary and Poland, two EU member states led by right-wing governments.
“If European leaders tolerate this, what prevents them from accepting the same in their countries?” said Mornia Pomel-Pichon, a 26-year-old illustrator quoted by the Associated Press.
Last year, the Polish president said that the term LGBTI does not refer to people, but to an ideology more dangerous than communism, which for several decades dominated this former Soviet bloc country.
In Barcelona, participants in the 45th Orgulho LGTBI demonstration called for a “more ambitious” trances law and condemned the rise in homophobic aggression.
Several hundred people began the demonstration in the University Square around 6:30 pm, which continued along Rue Pelai and ended in Plaza Sant Jaume, where the Generalitat’s headquarters and the City Hall are located.
The demonstrators focused on “transgender people” who, in their opinion, suffer more from “insecurity and discrimination in employment.”
Daniel Lima Guerra said on behalf of the LGBTI group Crida that the organization is fighting for the “trans” law.
“We want to warn the PSOE because we do not agree with what they are offering us,” he said in media statements quoted by Efe.
At the end of the march, four manifestos were read out, highlighting the challenges faced by the LGBTI community, such as work and housing, and racism and feminism as a result of open participation. on the march to other social movements.
In North Macedonia, hundreds of people marched in the capital, Skopje, at the country’s second gay pride parade.
The protesters carried a large rainbow flag, applauded and danced to the music that sounded from a car with loudspeakers.
Last year, North Macedonia’s parliament passed an anti-discrimination law, which is seen as the cornerstone of a decade-long civil society struggle to protect the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized communities.
