LUCCA. “Lucca is the city that will host Tuscany Pride 2024. We can’t wait to also reveal the date which we hope to be able to communicate to you as soon as possible”. The announcement comes from the Facebook profile of Toscana Pride. The appointment is for September, but there is no precise date yet. The organizers remain tight-lipped, but it appears there have already been contacts with the Municipality: in fact, the administration is the person who must give the green light. As anticipated, the date also seems to be established: it will take place in September, a novelty compared to the previous prides which were held between June and July. Another novelty is precisely the choice of our city: in previous years, in fact, the event for rights had touched other provincial capitals such as Florence, Pisa, Livorno, Siena, Arezzo. But never in Lucca and the choice does not appear to be random. This can also be understood from the Toscana Pride Instagram profile. At first, in fact, the question was asked “which Tuscan city needs pride?”, to which many responded Lucca, reporting the city’s leadership by a centre-right coalition. Then, the following day, a clue was given: an enormous feline (easy to see a panther in it) above the walls and towers of a medieval city. Beyond these suggestions, however, what matters are the papers and requests already made to the Municipality. In the past, when Pride has been organized in cities led by the centre-right, there have been cases of friction, even strong ones: we will see if this script will be repeated in the coming weeks. If in the end the demonstration is actually organised, it will be, as mentioned, the first Pride Lucca but not the first manifestation of the homosexual community. It is necessary, however, to rewind the tape to August 2003 when the windows of the Baroni bookshop, then in via San Paolino, were devastated and defaced with a swastika. The reason? The bookshop had previously hosted a meeting on homosexual issues. Same fate for a pub in Pieve San Paolo. The reaction to the gestures (also condemned by the President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi) was a large demonstration on 6 September, with the then mayor Pietro Fazzi in the front row.
