ALEXANDRIA – They are expected between 5 thousand and 10 thousand people to the fourth edition ofAlexandria Pridethe rainbow procession in support of the LGBTQIA+ community which, this Saturday afternoon, will color the city center, thanks to the organization of Weaving Identities in synergy with the Municipality of Alexandria. From 5pm the long snake of people will start from Corso Crimea, corner of Corso Roma. The live broadcast on Radio Gold will also start from around 5pm. People will arrive in Piazzetta della Lega and then walk along Via dei Martiri, Piazza della Libertà, Via dei Guasco and Spalto Marengo. At the roundabout that marks the beginning of Viale Milite Ignoto the procession will turn left to arrive at the “Pride Village” of the Carrà park at 7pm.
Driven by drag queens Mario Maraya Endimini, Ines Pressa and godmother Vera Aloe, the procession will also feature well six wagons, set up by Weaving Identities, Neighborhood House, by Non Una di Meno, by the Cgil and Uil unions, by the Il Gabbiano cooperative and by the Bunch collective.
At 7pm from the stage the participating associations and bodies will greet and thank the public and underline the reasons for Pride. This will then be followed by moments of refreshment at the Pride Village in the Carrà park, visits to the banquets and music until midnight. At the same time, at 11pm, theOfficial After Pride Party at the Officina in Largo Catania with music and entertainment until late at night.
Pride is supported by Piedmont Pride Coordination, Medea, Neighborhood House, Non Una di Meno, Culture and Development, Enabling, YGGDRA-Aula Studio Association, Le Metamorfosi book club, La Fenice, Alterego, CGIL and UIL, Isral, Coompany, La Città Nostra, Stregatti , Teatro Sociale di Valenza, Il Gabbiano, Cristo District Activities and Commerce Association.
“Despite progress, Italy remains behind in equal rights” underlined the organizers of Weaving Identities “the theme of Pride this year will be gender violence with the motto “it is not time to stop” to indicate that although the political world seems to be slowing down on the rights front, we must continue to fight to achieve equal rights and equal dignity, promoting culture, training and information to counteract a thought anchored to patriarchal patterns now obsolete. Pride unites those who fight for a more just society and represents a moment of pride and fight for equality. Collaboration with the municipal administration is essential to spread respect and equality. Furthermore, this year it manifested itself in a particularly fruitful way, thanks to co-organization, so as to concentrate our resources on other organizational aspects. Finally, numerous companies involved in the past have committed themselves again and supported by new collaborations. In fact, we still believe it is necessary to celebrate LGBTQIA+ pride and claim the rights of people belonging to this community. Over the decades, thanks to the commitment and activism of people who believe that achieving equal rights is possible, many results have been achieved. And yet, it is clear to everyone that, in our country, this goal is still far away. It’s not time to stop, exactly. In the ranking of rights developed every year by ILGA, Europe Rainbow Europe Map 2023, Italy has fallen one more place compared to the previous year, positioning itself in 34th place out of 49 countries for equality and protection of LGBTQIA+ people, positioning itself even behind to Orban’s Hungary. But Pride has become much more over the years: a moment of union of all those people who fight every day for a more just society, because they believe that change is only possible if we all stay united and fight together. Of all those people convinced that rights either belong to everyone or they do NOT. Of all those people aware that the first right to fight for is precisely the right to be who we are, what we choose or accept to be.”
“This year we have chosen to dedicate Pride to the theme of gender violence, and how only with the dissemination of culture, training and information, it is possible to eradicate
this evil of society by society itself. Gender violence, physical and verbal, has in fact become a social emergency in recent years. The LGBTQIA+ community is always a victim of homotransphobic demonstrations. And even today, there are many episodes that demonstrate how pockets of hatred and discrimination towards people who demonstrate their belonging to the community persist in the national territory. This happens sometimes even within the same family unit. The violence that has always been suffered by the LGBTQIA+ community has, in recent years, been increasingly accompanied by violence against women, becoming a real social emergency. This phenomenon particularly affects those women who, as in the case of people from the LGBTQIA+ community, they don’t lower their heads and proudly claim their rights and their social prerogatives, towards a complete emancipation of their figure in a society that is still too chauvinistic and patriarchal”.
“We believe that the answer to this violence is to be found in education and culture. Promoting culture means ensuring that people have the tools to interpret the changing society, to appreciate the diversity that surrounds them, to make their own the social mechanisms that lead to respect for others, for their choices, for their opinions, and at the basis of everything, of his “being”. Training and information are precious means to ensure that all people are able to understand, even before welcoming, the requests of the LGBTQIA+ communities, to ensure that the professionals who find themselves having to interact with it – think for example to healthcare personnel, lawyers and magistrates, school staff – have the tools to professionally support their needs”.
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