Palermo prepares for Pride 2024: theme is male violence

Last Updated: June 18, 2024

Palermo, tutto pronto per il Pride 2024: tema di quest’anno è la violenza maschilista

Explain in brief the following article:

Eleven floats, flash mobs, and performances: the Palermo Pride parade takes shape and is officially announced this morning (June 18) from the UN room of the Teatro Massimo. This year’s theme is “patriarchal male violence,” but the week dedicated to LGBTQ rights is now a container for struggles against “every form of oppression and violence – explains coordinator Daniela Tomasino – we must take to the streets for the planet, Palestine, Ukraine, and women’s rights: today aborting is becoming impossible as well as work is a utopia. We try to collect demands and struggles because the mechanisms of oppression are always the same and if a right is a right for a few then we are facing a privilege.”

The appointment is Saturday 22 at 3 p.m. in Via Roma: from there the parade will begin through the streets of the city center, which will wind through Via Ruggero Settimo and Via Dante until reaching the Cantieri culturali della Zisa, where the party and meetings will continue as every year. The event’s godmother is the Sicilian actress Simona Malato. The choice of the theme can only bring to mind the episode of the group rape inside the Foro Italico construction site, “a terrible thing and it was terrible twice – explains Tomasino – what was shocking was the reaction: it is very easy to say ‘you are the monster’, to do so means to absolve oneself, it is easy to accuse someone of being a monster. Violence is systemic and is found not only in the spaces we pass through but also within our families.”

We are rapidly approaching the main day, which like every year is preceded by “debates, meetings, screenings, stand-up comedy, and workshops for children, which then punctuate the calendar of off-events of this Pride. Unlike last year, it seems to arrive on Saturday without internal controversies: “Never say never – jokes Mayor Roberto Lagalla – the orientation of the administration regarding the protection of rights and the recognition of identities is clear, in the past as well as in the present. It is clear that political and partisan prejudices are lacking: the Pride is a party that the city must be able to welcome and listen to, that has always welcomed and therefore I do not see difficulties regarding this theme.”