LUCCA. That date didn’t have to be chosen. At least according to the municipal administration which accuses the organizers of not having taken into account the indications suggested in the meeting held last month.
The 2024 edition of Toscana Pride, the demonstration of LGBTQia+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and bi+, trans, queer, intersex and asexual) pride and visibility, will be held in Lucca on Saturday 7 September, re-proposing the usual itinerant formula with the desire to get to where, according to the event promoters, “there is the greatest need for pride”. “Indomitable and Fiera”, just like the Lucca panther, is the claim chosen by the organizing committee to characterize this, retracing the pride of the “queer” community in open ideological clash against the choices made by the Meloni government.
The case of the date
Unlike what happened in the previous editions, which took place in chronological order in Arezzo (2017), Siena (2018), Pisa (2019), Livorno (2022) and Florence (2023), the organizers decided to leave the usual months of June and July opting, in an unprecedented way, for 7 September. A date which, to put it mildly, does not arouse the appreciation of Palazzo Orsetti. «In the meeting we had with the organizers we indicated four days in which it would be appropriate not to carry out the procession – explains the mayor Mario Pardini –. These were dates on which, between Notte Bianca, Murabilia (scheduled for 6 to 8 September), the procession of Santa Croce and Settembre Lucchese, the city usually welcomes a large number of people. Added to the 4 thousand participants expected at Pride, the situation to manage in the historic center would not be the easiest. Among these there was also Saturday 7 September (the others were 31 August, 14 and 21 September, ed). I’m sorry that the committee opted for that date, six days from Santa Croce and in the middle of Murabilia which will attract 20 thousand people over the three days, not taking into consideration our doubts that emerged during the meetings with the prefecture and police headquarters. That dialogue promised by many parties evidently did not take place.”
Calendar of the Pride which raises serious questions about what the route of the parade will be, the last word on both the date and the route for safety reasons will be up to the police headquarters, in light of the various concomitant events.
The areas
«As things currently stand, some areas such as Piazza Napoleone and Piazza San Michele are not usable – continues Pardini –. The same applies to that portion of the walls which will be affected by the Murabilia stands. We leave it to the decisions that will be made by the police station. I find this decision by the organizers unfortunate.”
The organizers
On the other hand, the spokesperson of Toscana Pride Monia Marcacci invites the citizens of Lucca to fight to obtain a law against discrimination based on sexual orientation. «We will bring our creative anger to the city – says Marcacci -. We are staging an even more intersectional Pride which will speak the voice of all marginalized people such as LGBT, migrants, disabled, precarious and unemployed. We reject religious hatred, we support the Palestinian people and we call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. What will lead us to the parade will be a participatory path, hoping for the presence of associations and free subjectivities. Today more than ever we can and must remain together on the same side.”
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