This Saturday I will take part in the Milano Pride parade, an event I have always had some doubts about. I am part of those many Italians who don’t cherish farces made – maybe a little less nowadays, but yet – of ostrich feathers and provocations bordering on indecency. My grandparents taught me the art of discretion, so I get shivers when I think of the floats blaring music and of the garbage trail left on the streets, without any consideration for the others. To be associated with the inevitable but not unfounded weary comments is not my thing. And yet.

I have been explained that “the Pride” is not meant to further any cause, nor to open a dialog with anyone who is not part of the Pride already. «It is a tribal moment where those who are discriminated against can feel they are not alone, so they can better face the rest of the year». Maybe; but I find the very concept offensive, as if it validated the social rights inequality during every other day. And yet.

I am privy to enough backstage drama among LGBT activists to know of the infighting, of the backstabbing and of the irritation some groups feel toward others – not to mention the hostility against new entries in a supposedly inclusive environment. Just think that, when I proposed a big name in the LGBT world to open a dialog with other alternative sexualities to learn from each other and possibly give them access to the institutional resources already available for gays, the answer was there is no need for that. «Because we also tolerate deviants». And yet.

And yet I live in a country where, before even taking office, a government minister felt the need to declare that homosexual families do not exist, and that he will strive to oppose the right to abortion. I live in – or maybe I am hostage of – a country where another recently appointed minister violated international laws hoping to suppress hundreds of refugees of a color he doesn’t like. I live in a country where a senator who keeps trying to reinstate the Fascist Party tried to forbid the discussion of alternative sexualities in universities. I live in a country where such behaviors aren’t just thought as acceptable, but even praised by a large slice of the population – undoubtedly the same slice responsible for countless aggressions against anyone looking “different”.

For all of these reasons I will take part in the Pride. Not for the lousy interest of those only wanting to party, but give my contribution to a strong signal to those who would have the party repressed. I will be just one head among many, but one more nonetheless. If you will come too there will be more heads: the signal will be stronger.
The day after we’ll have another Sadistique; and the sexual explorers will keep going; and so on and on from an initiative to another, in the effort of winning equal dignity for everyone – proud even past the parade to be, each one in their way, different.