In Toulouse, Nantes and Bordeaux, tens of thousands of people took part in LGBT Pride Marches on Saturday June 10, waving the traditional rainbow flags, in a festive atmosphere. The police counted 14,000 demonstrators in Toulouse as well as in Nantes, and 4,900 in Bordeaux, where they wandered around the hypercentre to the right bank of the Garonne.
“Uni.e.s not to die”, “we are not to be healed” or “make love, not gay-re”, could be read in Toulouse on some of the signs, often written in English, while many people danced enthusiastically to the music played by the parade floats.
“I haven’t come to terms with my lesbianity for very long. This march is an opportunity to be proud of myself,” Anne, 50, a protester from Toulouse who does not wish to give her last name, told Agence France-Presse. His companion, Marie, 60, calls herself a “political activist”. “I have been doing the marches for forty years and will continue to do them until death ensues,” she says, smiling, before adding, “It’s my life. »
Apo, 24, wants “equality for all”. “We have to be free in our consensual sexual acts,” she said again. Organized by the Pride Toulouse collective with the support of the town hall of the Pink City, the Haute-Garonne department and political organizations, including Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, or trade unions, such as the CFDT, the 28th Toulouse Pride March has this year’s slogan: “Free to love freely”.
