Tens of thousands of people gathered in the centre of the capital Saturday calling for “a country without institutional or religious violence or crimes of hate,” as the 28th March for Pride which, for the first time, eliminated the traditional LGBTQ emblem.
“We got rid of the letters because they stopped being representative. There are identities starting to become more visible that have already existed,” explained Mariana Spagnuolo, one of the festival’s organisers, in a statement to the press.
As always, the crowd marched along Avenida de Mayo from the historic Plaza de Mayo to Congress. The tide of people walked, sang, and danced, some sporting bright costumes, others donning a slightly more scandalous look of partial nudity. The crowd was happy, colourful, festive and loud, with musical instruments ringing out.
Spagnuolo said the parade stands for “everyone who feels pride to not partake in the norms about sexuality and that includes those that are asexual.”
“Heterosexual people are welcome to the march to accompany us. But they are not the subject of this march,” she said.
The Organising Commission of the 28th March for Pride also led a “boycott from the government,” after the national administration refused to allow the use of the march's traditional stage in Congress. Instead, a speaking platform was erected at the Plaza de Mayo, after the Buenos Aires City government approved its installation. It was set up with its back to the Casa Rosada and alongside the Catedral Metropolitana.
“We vigorously reject this discriminatory attitude of the administration of Juntos por el Cambio and we denounce the stingy attitude of President Mauricio Macri that contrasts grossly with the hundreds of thousands of payments of capital and interests of the fraudulent external debt that, in reality, is a payment of obedience at the cost of the people,” read a document distributed by the Commission.
Macri lost last month’s presidential elections to Peronist challenger Alberto Fernández, who will take office on December 10 for a four-year term.
Among the organising sponsors were la Comision AntiComisión Antirracista, la Columna Orgullo y Lucha, la Comunidad Homosexual Argentina (CHA), 100% Diversidad y Derechos, Movimiento Antidiscriminatorio de Liberación (MAL), Conurbanes por la Diversidad, La Rosa Naranja, Mujeres Trans Argentinas, Asociación Civil Infancias Libres, 7 Colores Cooperativa teatral, Agrupación Xangó por la Inclusión y la Justicia Social, Afros LGBTD, y Asamblea Popular Feminista, entre otros.
– AFP
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