At last Sunday’s dawn, my husband headed for the biggest LGBT Pride Parade in Brazil and one of the most famous in the world. I am referring to São Paulo LGBT Pride Parade, which is, without the shadow of a doubt, a blockbuster and must-see.
Just to give you a glimpse of what I mean, let me share a wiki with you here (just one paragraph):
São Paulo LGBT Pride Parade (Portuguese: Parada do Orgulho LGBT de São Paulo) is an annual gay pride parade that happens in Avenida Paulista, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, since 1997. In the year of 2006, it was considered the biggest pride parade of the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. In 2010, the city hall of São Paulo invested R$ 1 million reais in the parade. The event is the second largest of the city, after only Formula One.[1]According to the LGBT app Grindr, the gay parade of the city was elected the best in the world.[2]
If you feel like checking it out on Wikipedia, please access: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Paulo_Gay_Pride_Parade
São Paulo LGBT Pride Parade hit the headlines
Last year’s edition was a huge success. Transgender Viviany Beleboni did get her message across. She drew everybody’s attention to the unbearable rates of violence that LGBT people have been facing up to in Brazil as she paraded as a crucified transgender woman. The sign above her head reads “Enough with homophobia – GLBT.”
This year, after being harassed by fundamentalist religious leaders, some of them working in the Congress and deputies and senators, she wore a costume through which she denounced that justice is bound by religious fundamentalism in Congress. Below you’ll find a picture of her wearing this fancy dress on the 20th LGBT Pride Parade this year:
Numbers of the 20th São Paulo LGBT Pride Parade
- 17 floats with the most varied attractions and music will ride on Paulista Ave, the most important of the city
- 30 DJ’s will be lifting the revelers’ spirits up
- 08 ambulances with ICU
- 08 removing ambulances
- 30 firefighters
- 200 security guards
- 180 rope holders to keep people in a safe distance from the floats
- 780 chemical toilets
- All of that besides the structure offered by the Municipality, which means police officers and the support of the company responsible for traffic engineering to take care of the vehicles flow around the venues of the Parade.
- The public that attended the parade: over 2 million people.
My experience with the LGBT Pride Parades
I go to every LGBT Pride Parade in Rio. For the late 13 years (my time out of the closet), I’ve missed only last year’s parade in Copacabana. It was a real pity, but now I’m going to São Paulo (a city 435,4 Km away from Rio, where I live, or 270,54 miles away.
My going to São Paulo Pride this year
My beloved Andre parading with me.
The strength of Frida Khalo was remembered by Drag Queens.
Sense 8 series made it to the Parade and shot some scenes for the series there and in other settings.
But it’s not all fun. There is always someone who resents the LGBT community and its allies’ joy, freedom, and demands. Let me share with you some of the “pearls of wisdom” I have to bear now and then when it comes to the LGBT Pride Parades in Brazil.
But the real highlight this year was a transgender law bill that threatens to withdraw transgender people’s right to identify as the gender they feel like theirs. That’s why sympathizers to the cause were encouraged to have their faces made up with the colors of the transgender flag. Transgender people had a float of their own to make themselves visible all the way through the Parade course.
In Portuguese, it reads #EnoughWithTransphobia
In Portuguese: Proud of being a #TRANSVESTITE
Have you ever heard any of these pearls of wisdom from friends or acquaintances?
1. “I don’t like to see fags kissing each other”
Oh, really! There are all kinds of manners to avoid it, including taking your sleeping pills and spending the whole day in bed. The Parade will be over within a few hours and you definitely won’t be missed. 😉
2. “The parade is not political anymore”
My Olympian Gods, have mercy on me! Politics is so much more than those horrific TV shows that invite professional politicians or critics to talk politics. Actually, few things could be more political than parading for the right to exist and express yourself. Actually, it is a wonderful way to get your message across. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if some people insist on ignoring such an obvious message even if an angel wrote it in golden letters onto their doorstep.
3. “The parade is a sin”
Pardon? What do you really mean by that? If I’m not too forgetful for my age, Jews, Christians, and Muslims have called all types of things a sin. I mean stuff as varied and inoffensive as food, music, theater, cinema, dancing, making love without the purpose of mere reproduction and so on. Sin has been one of the most effective ways to control people through fear and guilt. The LGBT Parade portrays a sounding “Enough with it!” to such nonsense. The Parade is all about equality, justice, freedom and there’s no room for such a poor objection like ‘it’s a sin’. Let all the queer angels say Amen.
4. “The Parade is too low level”
That’s just another stupid claim. Those who usually make such claims are those who hate sissies, butchers and the androgynous. They’re usually driven by racist, classist and chauvinist prejudice and should not be taken into consideration to start with. After all, LGBT Pride Parades have been out for the late 40 years to fight those very types of prejudice. Take my advice, keep it as low as that and it’ll be higher and taller than anything else.
5. “The Parade does not contemplate all the letters of the acronym LGBT”
Well, the Parade is for everyone. However, if you don’t go, don’t tell me you are not represented. You should be the first one to make a change wherever you see the need for that. If some niche of our community does not take part in the Parade, how will it ever be represented? Go for it, my queerest, because I certainly will.
6. “I wouldn’t take my child to the Parade”
That’s another nonsense. The Parade is full of children. Many homo-parental families go hand in hand with their children. Actually, long before same-sex marriage and adoption were legalized, I used to see lots of straight parents taking their children to the Parade and having a good time with drag queens and other people who shine to their fullest on the avenue. Besides, my parents have never been to an LGBT Parade or ever taken me to one of them, but I hardly ever miss one now. So, what’s the necessary connection, my Goddess?
7. “The Parade costs money to the Municipality and to the State”
People who say that usually ignore or pretend to not to see that the money brought in by parade-goers is immensely welcome to both the Municipality and the State. Media dedicated to finances and economy as well as tourism have broadcast 60 million reais (Brazilian currency), which means about 20 million dollars, are injected in São Paulo’s economy along the year just because of business related to the LGBT Parade. On the Parade day alone, more than 3 million reais (1.5 million dollars) flow into the city.
8. “If there isn’t a Straight Parade, why should there be an LGBT Parade?”
Wait a minute, baby! Don’t get your image so spoiled. Speech is silver, but silence is gold, as they say. When was a straight person ever persecuted for being straight? When were bonfires ever lit to burn straight people for the sin of being straight or doing straight? When did inquisitors ever torture a straight person for the sin of being who they were or marrying who they loved? When did the Nazi ever send straight people to concentration camps because they were “a threat” to the system for being straight? Don’t mess yourself up like that. Unfortunately, LGBT Pride Parades remain up-to-date because there are people who still discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, just like you.
9. “There are many pickpockets around during the LGBT Parade”
Well, it’s no different with music, sports or political events held outdoors, but people still attend them. Take my word, criminals won’t miss a chance of making some extra money on the heedless. Just watch your own belongings and don’t make it easier for the crooks. I myself was robbed once. It was some years ago. They stole some 20 dollars from my pocket. You know what? Now I carry all my money in a pocket inside my pants. If they try to reach it, I will be bound to get some extra stroking you know where… Thank you.
Seriously speaking, LGBT Pride Parade in São Paulo can count on the police who are almost anywhere, anytime.
Well, that’s it for now. All I have to say is: Get up, parade and shine to the fullest, darling.
