Tens of thousands of people marched through Paris on Saturday in support of LGBT+ rights, amid growing concern over the rise of the far right.
Waving rainbow flags and wearing flower garlands, demonstrators took part in the Pride march in a festive atmosphere that was nonetheless strongly political in France’s presidential election year.
The event, originally scheduled for late June but postponed because of the heatwave, set off from Place d’Italie in the early afternoon and was due to end at Place de la Bastille, where concerts were planned.
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Behind lorries blasting loud music, and with drag queens dancing on stage, many in the crowd held signs reading: “These fascists are doing my head in”, “Fuck RN”, “More love, less Zemmour”, and “Less RN, more lesbians”.
Before the march began, Alexandre Schon, co-president of Inter-LGBT, which brings together around 50 associations and organises the Paris event, urged demonstrators to turn their anger into action.
“Our anger must turn into victory because hateful and discriminatory rhetoric against trans people, same-sex couples and sex workers is increasing,” he said.
Anaïs Perrin-Prevelle, president of OUTrans, a group defending transgender people, said visibility was especially important ahead of what she described as a difficult period.
“It is important to be visible before a period that is going to be difficult for us, with the far right in France, but also in Germany, England, Spain and Portugal, all with the common aim of targeting trans people in order to essentialise women,” she told AFP.
Several left-wing political figures were seen at the front of the procession, including Paris’s Socialist mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, France Unbowed MP Sophia Chikirou, MEP Manon Aubry, Green MP Sandrine Rousseau and France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Pride marches are organised locally by associations across France, often in June, in connection with the Stonewall riots in New York on the night of 27 to 28 June 1969, a defining moment in the LGBT+ movement.
Last year’s Paris march drew 500,000 people according to organisers, and fewer than 100,000 according to police.
