Thousands of people marched through the streets of Lisbon today in the 24th LGBTI Pride March, to the sound of slogans such as “There is no cure because it is not a disease” or “Yes, yes, yes, we are like that.
Bare-chested or wearing rainbow-colored outfits, leather jackets or dressed in angel wings, several thousand people gathered today in Martim Moniz and headed towards Ribeira das Naus to celebrate diversity and the “right to love whoever you want”, as stated on one of the many banners and flags that animated the parade.
Cheered by megaphones, drums, and a tightly tuned chorus that shouted slogans like “Let it go, I’m queer and I’m going to change the world; let it go, I’m trans and I’m going to change the world”, the participants in the parade were being contemplated by the many tourists with whom they shared downtown Lisbon, among complicit or simply curious glances, but always with many photos and selfies along the way.
“We need to occupy the street, occupy the city, not be afraid, because people united have strength and we have to show the political parties and social forces that they have to support us, not discriminate, because where we have reached, we cannot go backwards,” said the president of Opus Diversities, Hélder Bértolo, speaking to Lusa during the 24th LGBTI+ Pride March.
“Hate will not silence us, people have to realize that we have the right to exist and to be free”, the president of the former Gay Oups emphasized, remembering not only the attacks made in the last few days to an LGBT+ initiative in Évora, but also in Braga and internationally.
“We have incredible attacks, in Braga the march didn’t manage to parade the first time, in Évora the exhibition was vandalized on Thursday and today there was a new terrible attack, by people from the extreme right, in an action with children,” he added, referring to the attack on the “Missiva de amor e ódio” exhibition on Thursday by three men, who set out on the run.
The show was part of the 1st Évora Pride program, which is taking place until Sunday in the Alentejo city, organized in partnership by Sociedade Harmonia Eborense, Núcleo Feminista de Évora and Associação Évora Queer.
The march for the defense of the rights of LGBTI+ people, which ends in a festival in Ribeira das Naus, gathered thousands of people in Lisbon today, on a route that for the first time left from Martim Moniz Square and not from Príncipe Real, to simplify the route for people with more difficulty in locomotion, according to the organization.
