PRIDE IN VERONA



AN ANTI-FASCIST ANTI-RACIST ANTI-SEXIST

PRIDE IN VERONA

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which began at the Stonewall Inn, a gay and trans bar in the Manhattan district of New York.
It was the first clash the homosexual community had with the police, and the first time there was a rebellion against the constant violence occurring during that period.
On June 28th 1969 the international LGBT movement began and the “LGBT World Pride Day” was proclaimed. The person who, from the very start, most contributed to the revolt and the beginning of self-determination for the gay-lesbian-bi-trans world was Sylvia Rivera, a trans individual who dedicated her whole life to this cause.
Also in 1969 marches for visibility, pride and LGBTQI rights began in many other cities in the United States, and then in rest of the world. These marches, called Gay Pride and later only Pride, tell the whole world that heteronormative social rules are repressive and must be changed. They affirm that the world itself must be freed from these atrocious classifications. They further affirm that people are all different: there are 7 billion of us on this Earth, 7 billion different gender identities, a wealth created by all of humanity.

Here in Verona, those from the world of LGBTQI, anti-fascism, feminism and trans-feminism, who believe in an anti-racist civil society, feel the strong need to create, for 2019, a Pride that is different: anti-fascist, anti-racist, feminist, and anti-capitalist. We want these exact words to be a sign of change that begins in this city and a symbol of the immediate and urgent need to breathe new, freer, less repressive, and less suffocating air.
Verona, which deserves a gold medal for its courageous and self-determined resistance to Nazi fascism, is also a city that since the end of the Second World War has never managed to rid itself of a fascist presence; and this culture, never dormant, has been regenerated through an increasingly strong presence in the city council. In recent years Verona has, regrettably, become an experimental city and laboratory for the resurrected system of radical, Catholic, and fundamentalist rights that unfortunately govern it.
We are witnessing an invasion of Casa Pound and Forza Nuova offices in Veronetta, a historic neighbourhood that has always belonged to the people and been multi-ethnic, as a provocation against the citizens who live there. Due to threats by these groups, a conference was cancelled at the University of Verona that was supposed to present the results of academic studies on the migration of LGBTQI people, who are increasingly present in our society and in Veronese associations.
Here in Verona, the homo/transphobic motions of 1995 (never abolished) by Sironi’s city council, which defined the far-sighted European regulations on equal opportunities of LGBTQI people as immoral, have been supported by motion n. 434 in July 2018, which officially declares Verona a “city in favour of life” and provides for the financing of associations linked to anti-abortion movements. It is an underhanded attack on the 194 law, aimed at a free and conscious abortion, and a fierce attack against the dignity and self-determination of women.
This attack was reinforced by the World Congress of Families, which took place in Verona and brought together worldwide no-choice movements and openly homo/transphobic global political groups.
This event took place in the presence of three ministers from the current government, under the patronage of the Province, the Venetian Region, and the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, and was coorganized by the council of Verona.
In this horrendous globally staged congress there was talk on how to destroy human rights, from those belonging to women to those belonging to LGBTQI individuals.

Verona Pride insists all individuals, from LGBTQI people, to women and immigrants, should live free from heteronormative, patriarchal, hierarchical, and repressive constraints.
Verona Pride rejects the Security Decree approved by an intolerant and fascist government: a law that violates all human rights and puts LGBTQI migrants and immigrants under attack.
Verona Pride calls for the construction of a multi-ethnic society, which is not based on the use of fear as a tool for social control.
Verona Pride wants a society built on the belief that everyone should possess the freedom of choice and asks for equal marriage as well as the recognition of rainbow families, and illegitimate and adopted children.
Verona Pride calls for adequate sex and gender education programmes and awareness-raising courses on bullying and homophobia in all schools.
It calls for information campaigns to fight HIV and STIs and calls for the fight against stigma against HIV-positive people.
Verona Pride insists on banning and opposing any form of pseudo-scientific theory of ‘repair’, as well as compulsory corrective surgical interventions on intersex people.
Verona Pride requests that public LGBTQI culture spaces be made available in municipal libraries, museums and in all places of education and culture.
Verona Pride asks, in the general crisis of the world of work, for greater protection for the weakest individuals such as women, LGBTQI people, and those belonging to other such minorities.
Verona Pride calls for people with disabilities to be respected in their sexual desires and needs and not repressed and ignored and asks for respect for people engaged in Sex Work so that they may freely use their bodies without stigmatization or victimization.
The Veronese Pride wants to provide free space for people who want to fully live and express their own sexuality or their trans, lesbian, bisexual, or intersexual subjectivity, through a trans-feminist culture.
In these years an increasingly strong feminist and trans-feminist movement has been built starting from women’s rights and expanding to the affirmation and dignity of all LGBTQI individuals.

The term trans-feminism affirms the freedom for everyone to freely express any kind of subjectivity they possess in a society no longer bound by repression, racism, stereotyped models and classifications of any kind. “Trans” comes from the Latin and means to be on the road, in the making.

And it must become a liberating hymn for all the
people of the world. WE ARE ALL TRANS!

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