“We stand alongside the LGBTQIA+ communities of all countries at war, and particularly close to the Palestinian, Ukrainian and Russian communities, just as we stand alongside the communities affected by conflicts in every part of the world. We call for an immediate ceasefire to put an end to the massacre that is exterminating the population of Gaza and we condemn the illicit occupation that Israel has been carrying out in the Palestinian territories since the first settlements.” So reads a passage from the political document accompanying the Gay Pride 2024 which will take place tomorrow on the streets of Turin, a document considered exclusive by the Adelaide Aglietta Association, which this morning during a press conference stigmatized the “politicisation” of the event which according to the association’s coordinator Lorenzo Cabulliese, it presents itself as “a political manifesto increasingly resembling that of a far-left party”. And the consequence, for those who believe in everyone’s right to demonstrate freely, can be only one: people do not participate in the demonstration: “The Turin Pride Coordination does not mention or recognize solidarity with Jewish and Israeli LGBT people and only includes Palestinians, making still feel that Jews are not welcome even at a demonstration like this which should be for everyone.
Solidarity with the Jewish queers of Keshet
Also out of solidarity with the Jewish queer organization Keshet Italia which has issued a press release announcing that it will participate in no Pride events on national territory, due to fears of aggression due to the climate of hatred that has developed around their participation. For Ruben Piperno, manager of Keshet Italia, the decision not to participate in Pride “is an extremely painful decision, but driven by a sense of responsibility we could only take a step back after the various threats received, in order to guarantee the safety of the Jewish queer people. Let’s take Pride day as a day of denunciation and reflection, thanking all those who will not take to the streets as a sign of protest for a Pride that includes everyone but not exactly everyone.”
“Stop the Jew hunt”
Also present at the press conference, which is not to be taken for granted, was Forza Italia, with the head of the youth policies department Alessandro Mauceri who brought solidarity to the Jewish community: “The position of wanting to expel the Jew as well as what is happening within the universities in which the Jew has no right to speak, the situation of wanting to prevent speaking to someone because he is Jewish, of preventing one from expressing one’s positions because he is Jewish leads the political community of Forza Italia not only not to participate in Pride but probably also every single member will refrain from doing so. We want to boycott this year’s Gay Pride because the message being conveyed is totally wrong.” Forza Italia has always allowed freedom of conscience on participation in Pride, underlined Mauceri, “but it is undeniable that the message that has been sent for some years in the political document of Turin Pride has become increasingly extreme, asking many more things, even those not relating to LGBT issues, about which we cannot be at ease. In particular this year with points such as the one relating to public order and police violence and on the foreign policy situation, in particular on the Russian-Ukrainian and Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.
“Israel, the only Middle Eastern democracy that allows LGBTQIA+ people to live”
Francesco Adile, Piedmont regional coordinator of the Liberal Institute, also spoke at the press conference: “We reaffirm the right to exist of the state of Israel, the only Middle Eastern democracy that allows LGBTQIA+ people to live and express themselves and we condemn the growing climate of anti-Semitic hatred and anti-Zionist fueled by the far left.”
Who won’t be there
The following organizations, which have expressed solidarity with the concerns and evidence expressed by the Aglietta Association, will also not adhere to the political document nor will they participate in Turin Pride: +Europa Torino; Italian Radicals; Italia Viva Torino; Marco Pannella Association of Turin; Italy Israel Association; Piedmont Zionist Group.
The support of the Jewish Community of Turin and the UGEI – Union of Young Jews of Italy also arrived.
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