Thousands in the square and on the streets of Rome for the Capital’s Pride, with over 40 vehicles parading along the route starting from Piazza della Repubblica and the procession opened by the banner reading “30 years of pride”. Also present were the mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, and the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein who boarded the first float together with the dem deputy Alessandro Zan and declared: “We will continue to defend the rights of LGBTQIA+ people despite the government having lost a another occasion during this G7 where some words magically disappeared. The word abortion, gender identity, sexual orientation but they cannot erase our bodies and our fight for the freedom and equality of all people.” . A statement that seems like a distant response to what Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said a few hours earlier in the closing press conference of the G7: “It usually happens that in official documents the things acquired are not repeated verbatim. In the Hiroshima declaration the reference” to abortion “was clear. I believe that the controversy was constructed in a totally artificial manner, the controversy did not exist in our discussions because there was no reason to argue about this”.
The parade
Rainbow flags and the Mario Mieli club flags were waved at the capital’s procession, while the godmother of this edition, Annalisa, performed on the first float singing my love And Beautiful. Mayor Gualtieri, at the head of the procession, wore the rainbow sash instead of the institutional one, then returned to the tricolor to continue the journey towards the Colosseum. The mayor recalled how the demonstration is “a celebration but also a fight” to “overcome all legislative, social and cultural discrimination”. Regarding the subway carriage with the rainbow colours, Gualtieri underlined how “beautiful” it is. It exists in many European cities, the controversies make no sense. We respect those who protest but let’s move forward with our choices”.
Schlein: “We will continue to fight, love does not discriminate”
“We as the Democratic Party will continue to fight for equal marriages, for a law against hatred and homotransphobia and for the rights of all the children of same-sex couples – Schlein said again at Pride – We will move forward because it is a shame that after a year and a half of this Meloni government, Italy has slipped to 36th position out of 48 in Europe, lower than Hungary, on LGBTQIA+ rights. We will continue to fight, love does not discriminate.”
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Meloni: “The government has taken no step backwards on abortion and LGBT rights”
Words, those of the dem secretary, arrived a few hours after those of Meloni who at the closing of the G7, regarding the debate on abortion, said: “It usually happens that in the final documents what has already been acquired is not repeated, making them unnecessarily repetitive”, the prime minister explained, referring to the recall of what was agreed in the G7 in Hiroshima on the topic of pregnancy termination. “I understand why these controversies arise but there was no controversy” within the G7 in Puglia on the issue, added Meloni, reiterating his position on law 194: “It will not be modified but only applied because there is no need changes.” Then he concluded: “In the government in these two years there have been no steps backwards with respect to issues such as the right to abortion or LGBT rights, the reality is different from a story that I see animated by various alleged observers, whose expectations are been disappointed.”
Conte: “M5S is there and will be there: against reactionary forces, for rights”
On the topic of rights – on the occasion of the Rome Pride – the leader of the M5S, Giuseppe Conte, also spoke on his social media: “I don’t know what problems some people have with the freedom and rights of individuals. We often try to reduce them, to slow them down, to take steps backwards, while we should be united to advance the rights of all at a decisive pace, to defend and guarantee the LGBTQIA+ community, which every day suffers violence, discrimination and insults for its way of being and because it defends its own right to love. The M5S is there and will be there: against reactionary pressures, for rights.
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