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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