A central element of a Pride has of course always been the Pride Parade. Since 2015, the stage programm at the street festival starts every year with the arrival of the parade at the town hall square in Esch-sur-Alzette. But what is the parade all about?
Since the beginning of the Pride movement in the aftermath of the Stonewall Uprising in 1969, Pride marches have been the channeling of the LGBTIQ+ community’s demands for acceptance and legal equality. The origin is basically political in nature. Thus, since the beginning of these marches, the demands of the community have been communicated to the public in the form of banners and signs by the participants. A Pride March is also about the visibility of a queer minority within society: while being „different“ was a taboo in social life and living out one’s sexual or gender identity was even punishable, queer culture only took place in secret. The Pride March puts faces to an anonymous mass and thus shares individual life stories. The message: come and show who you really are!
The Pride March is also a way for non-LGBTIQ+ people (so-called allys), organisations, parties and institutions to show their support and solidarity to the queer community and thus carry the concerns of LGBTIQ+ people into society at large.
To underline the political character of this march, the parade in Luxembourg has been held under the name „Equality March“ since 2015.
What does the Equality March 2021 look like?
We would have loved to march through the Rue de l’Alzette again! After last year’s Equality March could only take place in digital form due to Covid19, unfortunately this year – despite further changes in governmental regulations and a Pride Show in front of a live audience – no Equality March will be able to take place in the usual form.
Since queer visibility is more important than ever, especially in times of a pandemic, we don’t want to do without it completely in 2021 either. Therefore, we will organise a Digital Equality March again this year. And this is where you come in! Take part by taking a selfie of yourself or with your favourite people, friends or family. You are also welcome to take part in the form of a short video snippet of you dancing, greeting the audience, etc. Do you have a message you want to share it with others? Then draw a sign and hold it up to the camera! Be colourful, be loud, be yourself!
Send us your selfie(s) or video by Email or simply upload them to our Cloud!
The Digital Equality March 2021 will then be shown on an LED wall in front of the live audience on Wicki Beach during the Pride Show on Saturday 10 July from 2pm and will also be live streamed.
Lacking inspiration? Check out our Equality March from last year: