The press in Washington | At the WorldPride, determined to “fight together”

An “international march” for “the fight against hatred and for freedom” was held on Sunday in Washington, to close the worldpride. The demonstrators recalled being “the target of coordinated and systematic attacks” against their fundamental rights in the United States.

An old adage says: when America sneezes, the whole world is enormous. This expression was at the heart of the message of international march for freedom, in Washington DC, the closing event of the WorldPride on Sunday.

Admittedly, the crowd was much larger than the day before at the parade. Barely 1000 people had braved the rain in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the starting point of the demonstration. However, the atmosphere was reminiscent of the rallies of pride in the 1980s.

With engaged speeches, very emotional and marked by the urgency. “Our fundamental freedoms, our itself, are threatened. And if we do not recognize the urgency of the moment, we will have to take it from ourselves, ”said the organizers.

“A global anti-LGBTQ program”

“For me, the current moment is critical for LGBTQ+rights. Not just in the United States. In Hungary, Russia, Argentina and elsewhere, ”said The press Matt Beard, a Briton who lives in Germany and who is managing director of All Out Berlin.

“We are witnessing the realization of a global program concocted by the extreme right, the aim of which is to erase the rights of our community; But also those of women, immigrants and vulnerable people. »»

Alongside him, Gilbert Mittullah, who runs an LGBTQ+ group in Nairobi, Kenya, has the same sense of urgency. According to him, multimillionaries of the American far right finance leaders in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana … “For them, Africa is” the last bastion of hope “, since the African LGBTQ+ community is less visible. They forget that it was European colonialism that exported hatred on my continent. »»

“The courage is contagious”

“This country likes to talk about freedom. But he hastened it to remove it to the most vulnerable, “said Taylor Hack, of Christopher Street Project, a New York organization for the law of trans people. “We must all fight together and have courage. The courage is contagious. »»

Shumi, a trans refugee woman from Salvador, was on the gallery with her children to talk about her personal history.

“This fight is not just mine or that of the cheerful, bisexual or trans community. It is the fight of all minorities and vulnerable people in the country, “said Ryan Whitehurst, a young man from Virginia who demonstrated with his spouse, Nicholas Leon.

The couple in their twenties feel a rainbow of feelings when they are told about their future. Rabies, pain, anger. And also hope in the solidarity of the Americans to pass through “the repeated attacks of the Trump administration for six months”.

The recall of the past

Two names of missing activists were pronounced a few times during the many speeches at the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial steps. That of Marsha P. Johnson, Trans activist and figurehead of the revolt after a police descent at the Stonewall Inn bar, in 1969. And that of Bayard Rustin, leader of social movements for civil rights and the architect of the historic march on Washington in 1963. (He was also the subject of a biographical film, in 2023, Rustinwith Colman Domingo.)

The organizers also cited one of the most famous sentences in Bayard Rustin: “When an individual protests against the refusal of society to recognize his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest gives him his dignity. »»

Then the crowd dispersed in line to walk in the streets towards the Capitol, in the rain. They were less than 1000, but the rain seemed to have united them to each other, would have sung Brel.