Looking at the impressive demonstration on June 16th (we're talking about a million people), one would say that in this country the GLBTQ movement has remained the only one to fight for the secularity of the state.
It was a completely different Pride from last year's in Turin and it was for a very simple reason: while last year there were great expectations towards the centre-left, there was enthusiasm and a desire to actively participate in the change that the left was supposed to bring about, this year, after the bitter disappointment of a policy that was too timid, careless of the movements' demands and very, very hypocritical, the GLBTQ people decided to go against and did not want politicians, thus giving birth, without the need for symbols and/or sensational announcements, to a new political entity. The one who chooses the streets and the people, the one who stands with women, with transgender people who demand respect, work, and the right to their own identity, with the marginalized who have the courage to show themselves to the world for who they are without needing to hide or lie to please the conformists.
A people on the move, cheerful, colorful, beautiful, in search of their place to reaffirm their existence and their rights. Different people, very different, each with their own identity but united by the common desire to belong to a society that, when it speaks of us, holds its nose with condescension and considers us different or sick. Signs, slogans, lots and lots of music, children, some straight people, floats but also a subtle and ironic policy that takes aim at an increasingly overbearing, racist and homophobic Vatican, an all-male world that launches anathemas and fills people's heads with prejudices and stereotypes, a river of people who demand respect who say enough with Prodi and Berlusconi, symbols of an old Italy, full of corrupt and investigated politicians who carry out a policy of the strongest.
Gays and lesbians, transgender people, and bisexuals are demanding rights; they're demanding not to be discriminated against, they're demanding a law that protects them from the intolerant violence of the right and the church. They're demanding rights that will benefit everyone, including the children of those who took to the streets for Family Day. And they're born naturally. comparisons between an obscurantist, medievalist and very sad square and a lively, festive and angry square. A place that believes diversity is a source of growth and discussion, not ambiguity and decline.
Naturally, the mass media have given much more prominence to the Vatican square than to human rights, and this attitude speaks volumes about how information is a slave to political and religious power. Furthermore, the statements made by politicians are ridiculous: they are the same, same old, repetitive every year. According to these people, the million people who took to the streets against the DICO (Democratic Investigations Committee) deserve attention, while the million who took to the streets to demand laws and rights are irrelevant. This country is increasingly distant from the European countries that, in a calm and uncontroversial manner, have given all citizens, regardless of sexual identity, rights and laws. and it is increasingly similar to those Eastern European countries that prevent the normal holding of homosexual demonstrations and that are horrified by the demand for rights with the blessing of the church that justifies and/or remains silent in the face of any type of violence.
Yesterday we gave a sign of civility, we paved the way for the demand for rights, we shouted at the top of our lungs: Secularism, Dignity and Rights!
Marino Buzzi