Politics: Gay Pride parade in Lisbon

(this text is a translation from the portuguese article bellow)

Sad. Portuguese people are sad. And they are also complacent and not politically committed. This is the conclusion that I can take of the Gay pride that took place last Saturday in Lisbon, starting off at Marques do Pombal square and finishing at Rossio, downtown. For two hours the few participants - some hundreds, maybe 1000 or just a bit more, paraded peacefully and discretely. There were also only few people watching the parade along the way, it failed to attract the curiosity of passer-bys. The participants were mostly young people with some veterans. But I did not see any public figures, no known politician, no members of Parliament, no representatives of political parties (not even from the Green party or the Bloco de Esquerda).
There were just some representatives of the "Juventude socialista", the young socialists, with a long banner. And people from the organisations which had organised the parade. I propose to call it "Gay shame parade" or "Gay sadness parade", from now on. It seems that in Portugal everyone is ashamed of their sexual orientation or ashamed to parade and defend the rights they claim for their social group. Even ashamed to party! I have already seen a couple of Gay prides in Europe but none as sad as this one.

Portuguese people prefer to go to the beach (although last Saturday that was not even an excuse because the weather was not good for the beach), to go shopping, to work out, go to a marriage, even go to work, or stay at home watching the Football world cup. Anything but parading in support of more social rights. By the way, none of my friends participated in this parade, all seemed to have more important things to do. But many people were planning to go to Madrid in the coming weekend for the local pride celebrations which last a whole week and attract millions (yes, millions!). But I can understand that, Spaniards do know how to party and are much more cool than the Portuguese. And they are also better organised and are socially and politically more committed.

There can be some possible justifications for this weak participation in the Lisbon parade. It could be that people are tired of these parades, but they started only in 2000 so that does not seem to be the reason. Maybe Portuguese don't like carnival and would prefer something more political and low key, but this was a quiet and peaceful parade, nothing to do with Paris' or Cologne's carnivalesque parades. Well, maybe this minority already enjoys all the social rights and equal rights to heterosexuals in the law (unions, gay marriage, right to adopt children, don't suffer from homophobia or discrimination). But no way, not at all. The only possibility is to have a legal union (some sort of contract between two individuals) but which does not solve a lot of open issues. Well, in conclusion, for me, the Portuguese are simply lazy and complacent and do not care. After all the gay community enjoys a lot of freedom and life (at least around Lisbon) is rather easy. As one woman, in a shop in Restauradores square put it, "the Portuguese are like this in all respects and that's why the country is in the present situation. People want to enjoy the benefits and the rights and live well but they prefer to let others fight for them". Maybe that's why the Portuguese endured 48 years of fascism quietly. Or maybe this is only a sign of lack of political maturity.

Well, each country, each city, have the Pride that they deserve and it seems that the Portuguese are not really proud of what they are, after all. Let's just be happy with the fact that this was a quiet, peaceful parade, with minimal police forces and which did not even attract extreme-right demonstrators. Also the effort of some associations should be praised, like Ilga Portugal, the "Panteras Rosas", the "Clube Safo" and “Não te prives”.

The weak publicity made in the media and newspapers to the event must also be pointed out. Last Saturday, the newspaper Publico only dedicated a few lines to the issue (with no heading) and talked mostly about the Oporto Pride event, coming up in July. And on Sunday, the same paper dedicated an entire page to the subject, but without an explicit heading. One article talked about "Giving visibility and solve concrete cases of homophobia" (talking about the work of the association “Panteras Rosa”, while the other focused on "Young Socialists defend access to adoption for same sex couples". Very limited as information and service, knowing that the motto of the parade was "Equality in the law and in the society" and that the demonstrators asked for same sex marriage and the right of adoption.

The Gay pride day finished with a party - the "Arraial Pride", in the Figueira Square just behind Rossio, downtown. The party was integrated in the city's festivities which take place around June. Although it occupied a rather small area in the square, it seems it was packed. All in all, the "alfacinhas" (Lisbon's inhabitants) seem to prefer parties, eating, drinking and dancing, to boring political parades where nothing happens.