The march began at Avenida dos Aliados and circled Porto’s city center, nearly filling half of Praça da República, all of Rua da Boavista up to the turn for Cedofeita, and all of Rua de Cedofeita, until reaching Largo Amor de Perdição, in Cordoaria.
Throughout the route, banners ranged from small to massive, displaying messages such as “Right to exist, duty to resist,” “The world needs our activism,” “Better a dyke than a fascist,” “Love is of all colors,” “Living is not just breathing,” “There is no cure for what is not a disease,” “Love does not need your permission,” and “Gisberta present.”
Chants were also heard along the way, including “neither less nor more, equal rights,” “our struggle is every day against machismo, fascism, and homophobia,” “independent living is for everyone,” “the non-binary body is revolutionary,” and “women with disabilities are also in resistance.”
“The importance is that it’s the twentieth. The importance is witnessing a regression and an attack on our existences. So, it’s a duty to come and fight, especially for those who can. Unfortunately, we are here also for those who cannot fight,” said Filipe Gaspar, one of the organizers, before the march commenced.
Filipe Gaspar noted that “this year’s imperative is stronger precisely to fight against those threats coming from the far-right’s directives,” with the march’s aim being “to take to the streets, to occupy public space.”
“Hate speech has grown horribly. Just look at the comments we see on newspaper pages, which for us is a constant attack,” he lamented, asking people to imagine “opening a newspaper every day and seeing their identity or their way of existing being attacked.”
Specifically regarding comments that encourage LGBTI+ individuals not to express themselves publicly, Filipe Gaspar believes that “this type of criticism comes from a place of prejudice – which we all have, so this is not an insult to anyone” – built on an erroneous sexualization of people.
“But we are talking about affection,” along with “the right to family, that’s what we are claiming, and they also want us to stay at home, to hide our families, our way of showing affection,” he continued.
Filipe Gaspar expressed that if those who criticize attended a march, it could “deconstruct many prejudices and stereotypes regarding people who frequent this place, this space, and these existences.”
“It’s really about letting down our guards and listening. We are people, we are human beings like anyone else, with feelings, and we do not want to be reduced to sexual, sexualized, or fetishized beings. We don’t want to be in that place; we want to effectively be in the place of everyone: at work, in institutions, in politics,” he emphasized.
