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News > World

From Mexico City to Milan, the World Celebrates LGBTI Pride

  • LGBT rights activists march during a previous pride parade in Santiago, Chile.

    LGBT rights activists march during a previous pride parade in Santiago, Chile. | Photo: Reuters

Published 28 June 2015
Opinion

From marriage equality to trans inclusion, LGBTI people continue to march for equal rights.

Marches across the world Saturday and Sunday have flooded city streets, with Pride celebrations marking important victories as well as challenges ahead for the rights and dignity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.

Santiago (Chile)

More than 50,000 people participated in Santiago’s 15th LGBTI pride parade Saturday, which included the presence of government officials and diplomats.

The march demanded a law protecting gender identity for transgender and gender non-conforming people, a ‘Ministry of Diversity’, and marriage equality.

“We are already thousands at Italy Square. March for Pride and the Law of Gender Identity.”

“The march beats all expectations,” Rolando Jiménez, leader of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), told El Universo. “This shows mass support for equality for gay and lesbian parents, as well as a clear rejection of those who oppose rights for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders.”

“For a Chile without discrimination.”

The parade marked the 24th anniversary of the establishment of the sexual and gender liberation movement in the country.

Rallies also took place in other cities in Chile, including Concepcion and Puerto Montt.

Mexico City (Mexico)

In the Mexican capital, an estimated 5,000 people took part in Saturday’s march which was both a celebration and a protest.

“Rights are not voted on, they are guaranteed,” exclaimed Ivan Tagle, leader of the sexual diversity group YAAJ, according to the Mexican El Economista.

Tagle referred to a pledge by Mexican left-wing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to put marriage equality to a consultation.

Earlier this month the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled that the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman is discriminatory and unconstitutional, making it legal in all of Mexico’s 31 states.

If the ruling holds, Mexico will join Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay as the only Latin American countries where marriage for same-gender couples is legal.

London (UK)

Saturday’s pride parade in London saw the participation of the anti-immigrant right wing party UKIP, despite having been officially disinvited from the march.

The far-right’s LGBT block reportedly marched in front of the African sexual and gender diversity group Out and Proud Diamond, some of whom are or have been asylum-seekers.

“We would rather have them marching with us than against us,” Edwin Sesange, director of the African group, told Gay Star News.

The march also included the presence of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, LGBT members of trade unions and councils, students from the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts, and pro-Palestine activists.

The event was allegedly also more inclusive of the transgender community for the first time, although some transgender people continue to be skeptical.

“We are moving at two different speeds, Pride feels like a celebration of rights than have been already won,” Jane Fae, a transgender advocate told the Guardian. “The gay community is now very respectable, there’s the pink pound, and all the big corporations want to be associated with Pride. The reality is that we in the trans community have not won our battles yet, there’s a lot of fighting still to do on issues that do not affect the LGB part of the acronym – like medical ones, like unemployment.”

Milan (Italy)

Milan’s Pride saw an estimated turnout of 100,000 people Saturday, including the city’s mayor, who advocated for marriage equality.

“Today we send a message of tolerance and respect for liberty, to love whomever you want, and to have the same rights as everyone; because there is one inviolable right: to be happy with oneself,” Milan’s mayor Giuliano Pisapia said at the march.

Forza Nuova, a far-right political party known for its homophobic stance, was also present at the march. No violence was reported despite its provocative presence.

RELATED: Gay Pride: Sao Paulo 2015

RELATED: 50,000 Chileans March for LGBT Rights

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