They were some 550 people, this Sunday, in Epinal, to brave the cold to participate in the white march in tribute to Lucas. The 13-year-old teenager, harassed because of his supposed homosexuality, committed suicide in early January. “Thank you to everyone for coming. I don’t know what to tell you, ”said her mother, Séverine, 35, at the end of the demonstration. Extremely moved, she burst into tears while pronouncing the name of her son. The tribute lasted just under an hour and ended with a minute of silence.
In a message finally read by the godmother of Lucas, the mother of the family paid tribute to her son, who was “like a sun” and who today “became our little angel”. “His disappearance upsets us (…) Lucas was a boy who had full of ambition and dreams”, he “loved music, walks in the forest, his complicity with his brother Donovan, cooking with me, drawing to make the world happiest was his little sister Ava whom he loved with all his heart,” she continued. Lucas had a “passion for hairdressing” and “wanted to make it his job. He was so bubbly,” she concluded.
“She was also the victim of harassment”
The dance club of which Lucas was a member also paid tribute to him by presenting choreographies, including one on “Kid” by Eddy de Pretto, a title symbol of the gay community, tearing tears from several participants. Many parents were present with their children, as well as students from Golbey College, near Epinal, where Lucas was educated. Many of the attendees held a portrait of the teenager and wore flocked t-shirts bearing his likeness.
In the procession, Elodie, 42, whose daughter “was friends with Lucas. It was very hard for her.” “I was afraid that she would do something stupid, especially since she too was the victim of harassment in this establishment”, confides this mother of three children, all of whom attend school in Golbey and who says she has withdrawn her children from college and have moved.
Lucas’ mother had insisted that this march be strictly limited to paying tribute to her son, without distinctive signs or political recovery. “The idea is to honor the memory of this child and to stop there,” said his lawyer, Me Catherine Faivre, at the start of the march. According to Lucas’ mother, it was the bullying that was the “trigger” of her son’s suicide. “I’m sorry” for “not having been able (…) to save (Lucas). Nobody could, ”said Séverine, very moved, during a press conference Monday in the office of her lawyer.