28th June: a Day to Celebrate in Many Different Ways

Celebrations related to the LGBT Pride Day claim a positive evaluation of diversity of sexual orientation and sexual identity. The history of these celebrations is well known. It is related to the social mobilization of LGBT people in the late Sixties who proposed a crucial shift in LGBT politics: from a plea for tolerance to a proud recognition of difference.

The LGBT Pride Day is celebrated all over the world although with different meanings. In Western countries with progressive legislation on sexual citizenship, the celebrations of the LGBT Pride Day have become a ritual event of happiness, socialization and powerful self-promotion. Here the LGBT community enjoys its multiple achievements as well as its internal pluralism (in terms of cultures, lifestyles and political visions). It is not rare that internal divisions come to the surface, related for example to the intersection between sexuality, race, gender, and class. When it happens, the Pride Day faces critics of homonormativity and homonationalism where the recognition of LGBT identities is combined with the reproduction of the privilege of the white-male-liberal-high class subjects.

In other Western countries with less progressive legislation, the LGBT Pride Day is celebrated to claim social and institutional advancements for LGBT people. Rallies and marches express the need to align the country to international (Western) standards of sexual citizenship. Here internal political divisions become less visible and the LGBT community enjoys the Pride Day to represent its unity.

But the LGBT Pride Day is celebrated also in countries where the social conditions of LGBT people are barely comparable with those of the most affluent countries. In these contexts, the celebration represents a moment of visibility not only for the LGBT community but also for political forces that express hostility against it. Anti-LGBT statements are often coupled with nationalism and political anger toward globalisation and international institutions. These are the cases where the LGBT Pride Day preserves its original meaning.

Arqus is committed to equality, anti-discrimination, equal opportunities and diversity in the European Higher Education Area. Its Action Line 2, “Widening Access, Inclusion and Diversity”, combines a number of coordinated proposals and common goals with the aim of making a significant overall contribution to social justice and to an inclusive Higher Education Area in the future.