The invisible people paraded: "Now we no longer have to be ashamed.""
Even those who have never come out as different will take to the streets on Saturday. The appeal is also addressed to the mayor. But only the Province has granted funding. A long list of cultural events.
by Cristina Zagaria
The party started in Bari
Gay men, women, and lesbians will be in the spotlight at the Gay Pride parade. Among the crowd, still hidden, still incognito, will be "the invisible ones." "I don't want to miss Saturday. But I haven't told my parents and friends yet that I'm gay, so I'll blend in with the crowd. Maybe next year I'll be able to ride on a float and finally feel free." Mauro, 19, from Taranto, a law student in Bari, is one of the many young people who will march on the sidelines because, for one reason or another, they haven't yet come out as gay.
«We will march through the streets of Bari for those who cannot yet do so, so that our children will no longer be afraid of saying: 'mum, I'm gay'’, say the kids of the Arcigay club of Bari. When the spotlights turn on the final Gay Pride parade, when the cameras follow the 12 floats parading amidst music and color, among the people standing on the sidewalks or looking out of their windows, there will, in fact, be hundreds of gay men in disguise. Pride is in their honor. "This week is not a postponed carnival, nor a celebration in and of itself," say the organizers. "It's a battle for the future." These last ten months, between exhibitions, seminars, and conferences in the name of gay pride, have been a shot of hope for gays and lesbians. But it's only a battle won.
«"There are many young men and women," they say at the Arcigay club in Bari, "who have helped us prepare events, seminars, and posters in recent days, and who will never go on stage." These are young people who are happy to talk, who tell their stories, but they don't like cameras and the media. Not yet. And it's for them that everyone else will come forward. "I'm not from Bari," says Rosaria Iodice, spokesperson for the 'Città delle donne' (Women's City), "I'm from Naples. And when I arrived in this city two and a half years ago, everyone told me, 'Don't tell anyone you're a lesbian, because otherwise you'll lose your job and then I'll be forced to leave.' I was brave, and it worked out well. But I don't want any woman who lives and works in Bari to be afraid to say, 'I'm a lesbian.'" Since November 18th, all the organizers of Bari Pride have been working to bring "a dialogue to Bari between people who are still considered second-class and those considered first-class." And now, in this final week, they are calling on Bari to take to the streets, to demonstrate for all homosexuals still forced to live in the shadows: "If you don't want to go out, stay home, but if you want a dialogue, you want to understand who we are, come and see." Also because the young people of the Arcigay Giovanni Forti club were the first to get involved. "It's no use denying," they say at the headquarters on Via Adriatico, "that the first prejudice we tried to break down is our own, against a city that has always rejected us, or at best, ignored us.".
""We, the young people of the old South, have now become free.""
The stories of a troubled adolescence, amidst the anxieties and changes in traditional families. Twenty thousand arrive from Europe.
Luigi from Lecce understood this since he was a child. But for too long he pretended. "For five years I was engaged to a girl to try to hide my homosexuality from the outside. Now she's married and I'm here, living in Bari and volunteering for Gay Pride." Luigi Caroppo is now 32, studying political science, and is no longer ashamed. But he admits he's a bit anxious about the moment when the cameras will focus on him and even in Lecce it will be known that he's not a man who loves women. "My parents already know and have accepted it. My father, a farmer, told me: 'It's your life, do what you want with it.' Besides, I had the support of my brothers. My sister was the first to know.".
A multitude of hidden diversities are preparing to come out into the open these days in Bari, like chrysalises emerging from their cocoons. They will come from the closed-off villages of Puglia, Sardinia, or Calabria, from the depths of Sicily, where "gallism" is always the same as described in the novels of Vitaliano Brancati. Or from "mammon" Campania which, says Maria Silvia Tartaglione, a Neapolitan lesbian, "tolerates the 'femminielli', the young trans people, more than us and the gays." Maria Silvia will come to Bari on Thursday with the hope that the homosexual rally will be better than the one in Naples in 1996: "The South wasn't ready for a demonstration like that back then. There was a huge coming out, girls overcoming their shame and holding up the banners of the lesbian movement. Antonio Bassolino, mayor at the time, took the stage with us. We even received institutional recognition, but then it all ended there. Society remained alienated from us; we built nothing. This is why I want to come to Bari and meet the girls' eyes to see what we've been missing: planning." Maria Silvia was active in the lesbian movement but is now on a reflection period: "The separatist current is gaining ground and I find myself out of line: I don't believe that being a lesbian means being against men." Outside of Bari Pride, however, there is Arcilesbica, which will organize independent parties and initiatives, "self-managed and self-financed," explains Valeria Di Cagno, the association's Bari representative, who is at odds with Gay Pride for "political choices" and interested in seeking "dialogue with the movement of movements.".
But beyond the disagreements, Saturday's parade will be an opportunity to come out and meet other gays from all over the world: there will also be a delegation from Miami – representing a generation of homosexuals who grew up in the shadows of the traditionalist South. Unlike the gays of the 1970s, they don't seek escape to those safe havens of society, such as art and entertainment, where their condition is tolerated: their challenge is to remain homosexual even in the most "macho" places. Flavio Di Venosa, 23, from Bari, for example, is chasing a dream: "To join the army. I applied as a volunteer." In November, he returned from the United States, where he studied business a stone's throw from San Francisco, the cradle of the human rights struggle. "Returning to Bari was tragic." Sante Longo, on the other hand, is 22 and comes from Mola. "I never thought I was heterosexual. Now that I've fully accepted my condition, I'm coping better." At home, "no problem." But if it's too late, his mother, a fervent Catholic, calls him "excommunicado" and blames him for his friends. With his father, a municipal employee, "we almost never see each other. We've never delved into it, we don't have a great relationship." A gym-trained man, he says he still likes women. And he avoids "gay-friendly" clubs: "They're places of self-ghettoization.".
Also because, says Maria Silvia Tartaglione, "the new generations are more open. And we, in the South, are perhaps less hypocritical than in the North. At first, it's a tragedy in the family. Then they say, 'You're a lesbian? What do I care?'" Verusca Caraviello, 46, a transgender hairdresser from Campania, confirms: "I spent thirty years away, between Milan and Tuscany: the country was too small for me. I returned to Naples two weeks ago. I have to say, things aren't as bad as they used to be. The femminielli are here now, and they're well accepted. I'm staying here.".
Gay Pride, the challenge at the Palazzi "Fitto, join us on stage!""
The event, held in Bari for the first time in the South, was officially presented yesterday. Bellomo said he wanted to represent all Apulians.
Bari Pride's latest challenge is to the institutions. The Region and the Municipality, which after offering their patronage, disappeared into thin air. Gay Pride Week begins with a bang. "Moral patronage isn't enough. I ask President Raffaele Fitto to join us on stage." Michele Bellomo, the young and fierce spokesperson for Bari Pride, at the event's official presentation, on the one hand announced a shower of 5,000 red heart-shaped balloons over Bari and, on the other, challenged the halls of political power. "In a recent statement, the President of the Region said that he represents all Apulians, including the 40,000 homosexuals. Well, Mr. President: in Puglia, out of four million inhabitants, 400,000 are homosexual. And it's important to get the numbers right, to demonstrate that patronage isn't just a formality to win votes from the gay community in the upcoming elections." And the "provocation" is not only directed at President Fitto, but also at Bari's mayor, Simeone Di Cagno Abbrescia. "The mayor," says Bellomo, "cannot ignore an event that will involve the city and bring it to the forefront of national and international media. It's the first Pride parade in Southern Italy, and it's in Bari. We're not talking about the Alpine Regiment festival, but about a 'historic' event, which for commerce, tourism, and the future of Bari's political and social life is perhaps even more important than the traditional Fiera del Levante.".
Bellomo isn't content with his previous successes. He goes further. And he issues an official invitation: "President Fitto, Mr. Mayor, join us on the Gay Pride stage," hoping that, after a year of controversy, tactical silence, and moral advocacy, this time the two will take a clear stand. Either with Gay Pride or against it. Moreover, the Pride organizers cannot ignore the fact that prominent regional and national politicians from the Polo delle Libertà are still "rowing against Pride." The reference to Senator Ettore Bucciero is clear, even though the National Alliance MP is never named during the official presentation of the event. Bellomo simply sends a loud and clear message: "In Italy, the conservative right must realize that in the rest of Europe, the right is also fighting for the recognition of rights for all." Despite the defections and controversy, the Bari Pride spokesperson remains optimistic: "The offer from Torre Quetta and the city administration's total willingness to organize spaces, meetings, and transportation in the final week give me hope." The only local institution to clearly support Gay Pride 2003 and allocate funds was the Province. Thanks to this support, Michele Bellomo and Rosaria Iodice (the women's spokesperson) organized four film festivals, 18 theater performances, four book presentations, 28 seminars, and three exhibitions over the course of ten months. And now, for the grand finale, the organizers are hoping for a quantum leap, with the active involvement of all institutions.
