Green, gray, sky blue, pink, orange… In the street, the colors multiply on the striped flags. Gone is the hegemony of the rainbow flag to represent the LGBT+ community; for several years, its different components have asserted themselves in separate battles, taking on their own colors, their own days. The day of transgender visibility thus preceded, on March 31, International Asexuality Day, on April 6. Lesbians have their own “day of visibility” this April 26.
“The term LGBTQIA + brings us all together, but we each have different experiences, different realities, so we need everyone to have visibility” to expose specific issues, explains Flora Bolter, co-director of the observatory LGBT+ from the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. Juliette Wood, head of the association of intersectional struggles for education, equity and solidarity, takes the example of the 2022 lesbian march dedicated to “access to PMA for all”. A right acquired since then, which “would not have been so highlighted in a classic Pride”.
Show that you can “be a happy LGBT+ adult”
More recently, the Tous des Femmes association, chaired by Maud Royer, launched a campaign for diversion of sex change in civil status. “It’s a politically relevant moment to have at least a little space once a year,” she defends. “The Pride March is no longer specific enough and no longer has enough impact,” says Juliette Wood.
Which is not necessarily a bad thing. Over time, this large gathering has first become a moment of joy and self-affirmation, the opportunity to “tell young LGBT+ people, who perceive a society where the norm is to be a heterosexual adult in a relationship and that others are on the margins, that you can be a happy LGBT+ adult,” underlines Flora Bolter. Multiplying these days of visibility thus provides more opportunities to “break the silence” for these young people. The co-director of the LGBT+ observatory of the Jean-Jaurès Foundation also sees it as an opportunity “to tell people who are not LGBT+ that we exist, that we are their neighbor, their colleague, their friends, and not creatures lurking in the shadows.
Pride Spring
The success of these days is also linked to their fixation in the calendar. “Calendar logic corresponds well to social networks, useful for giving visibility to an event,” Flora Bolter continues. The Tous des Femmes campaign is a convincing example, the petition “don’t judge my gender” having received more than 23,000 signatures. “Sometimes it’s not very safe to go to demonstrations. So campaigning on the networks, relaying, is important, and it also allows us to recognize ourselves for those who cannot come because they are precarious, disabled, too far from a big city,” adds Juliette Wood.
The day of trans visibility, March 31, has especially received a spotlight for three years. “It was already happening before, but Joe Biden recognized it. It’s very important that a government “highlights” these kinds of events, rejoices Flora Bolter. Conversely, “when homosexual people in positions of power decide not to make it political, it’s a shame, because it’s still up to people who don’t have the resources to expose themselves and to suffer,” notes Maud Royer.
The last asset of these multiple days, their proximity. The day of trans visibility thus launched a sequence which will stretch, on a French scale, until the Pride March. In the meantime, asexual people, lesbians, and pansexual people will have had their day, in addition to the international day against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, placed on the anniversary of the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“It is not taken up in all countries on the same date, bisexual visibility day is in September, but these marches are actually more associated with spring,” notes Flora Bolter. “Traditionally, the month of June is a month of LGBT+ struggle,” approves Maud Royer. As such, the Stonewall riots in 1969 have largely structured the history of LGBT+ struggles. Since then, the steps have become more and more colorful.