The slogan for this year’s parade is “All for One”, while its chosen theme is that of intersectionality, a term intended to signify the way in which different aspects of social, political and gender discrimination can overlap with one another.

By choosing this theme, Belgian Pride and and its supporting organisations want to underline how much the identity of an individual is not merely reducible to their skin colour, sexual orientation, gender, religion, disability or age.

“In addition, intersectionality is an obvious reference to the Stonewall riots in New York in 1969, just 50 years ago,” says Cyrille Prestianni, president of Belgian Pride. “These incidents marked the beginning of a fight that the global LGBTI + community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and other people) is still fighting today.”

On Saturday, May 18, more than 45 organisations will be holding a ‘Pride Village’ from 12.00 pm at Mont des Arts. A Pride Parade Kick-Off will then take place in the village from 1.45 pm, hosted by Cesár Sampson, the Belgian contestant for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018.

The Pride Parade will start at 2.30 pm. It will begin by passing through Pride Village, before heading through the streets Ravenstein, Arenberg, the Squire, Fripiers, Midi and Lombard, before eventually returning to its starting point.

No cars will be allowed on the Pride route during the parade. Public transport will also be interrupted between 12 pm and 7 pm on Ravenstein street, and from 2 pm to 7 pm on the rest of the route. Various celebrations are also scheduled to take place from 5 pm, when the parade is scheduled to finish.

Several security measures will be taken to ensure the safety of festival-goers, including searches at the entrance of Pride Village. It is also advisable not to take a backpack to the parade if one can avoid it.

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Today, the Belgian Pride Festival reached its grand finale during the annual Pride Parade. Over 100 000 people and 70 contingents came down to the capital to party, but also to pound the table on the eve of the local elections.

With Your Local Power as the central theme the three LGBTI+ umbrella organizations in Belgium (çavaria, Arc-en-Ciel Wallonie and RainbowHouse Brussels) demand that local authorities should commit to an explicit, integrated LGBTI+ policy.

The Belgian Pride Festival is more than just the well-known Pride Parade. On Friday 4 May the official kick-off for the festival was given in Brussels Town Hall. Offering a varied programme including debates, movies, music performances, the Ihsane Jarfi tribute day and finally the Pride Parade, the organisations were able to lure thousands of LGBTI+ personalities and friends to the city. On the day of the Pride Parade there were over 100 000 people.

All the rainbow colours on parade wagons, Pride Village, Rainbow Village and Pride Stage  

Mayor Philippe Close welcomed everyone to the city, after which the philosophy of the Your Local Power theme was briefly explained during the Pride Parade Kick-Off.

After a glamourous performance by the French drag queen Leona Winter and a dance recital by Trinxx (on high heels) the parade hit the road. This year no less than 70 contingents from all over Belgium joined the exuberant and colourful procession through the centre of Brussels. The festively decorated parade wagons, provided with music and flying rainbow flags.

“Setting up the Belgian Pride takes blood, sweat, and tears every year. Thanks to numerous volunteers this year’s parade was one of the most successful we’ve ever had. We already invite everyone to join the 24^th edition next year, which will take place on the weekend of 17 May”, says Belgian Pride coordinator Elio De Bolle.

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This was the 23rd edition of the Belgian Pride, which, as always, opens the European Pride season; with the European capital demonstrating its diversity and openness to the LGBTI+ community with a two-week festival.

Belgian Pride 2018 on Instagram

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Aside from the festive events, Belgian Pride and its festival are also the ideal opportunity to emphasise the community’s demands, which are aimed at increasing solidarity and making our society more equal. Belgian Pride the culmination of the two-week festival, offers its own new features and stretches over four days.

Here’s an overview of what’s in store

Thursday 17 May:

At 17:00, the silent “Ihsane Jarfi” march against intolerance, discrimination and homophobia starts from place de la Monnaie. On the same day, BOZAR will host a charity gala evening during which artworks will be auctioned, with the profits going to the Ihsane Jarfi Foundation.

From Friday 18 to Sunday 20 May:

Le Rainbow Village will kick off the weekend’s festivities in style, with the Crazy Friday. The establishment of Brussels’ Saint-Jean neighbourhood will be engulfed by the sound of DJ sets and other performances. The neighbourhood will move to the rhythm of Pride throughout the weekend.

La Démence
will offer party-goers one giant weekend-long party. Clubbers from all over Europe will gather for three memorable evenings.

Saturday 19 May:

The unmissable parade will light up the centre of Brussels by proudly displaying the rainbow colours from 14:30.
For more information:

The Pride Village will welcome visitors from 12:00 on 19 May at the Mont des Arts. Performances, culinary speciality tasting sessions, concerts, etc. More than 40 associations will provide interesting information on a myriad of different subjects and will offer original activities to raise awareness

To round off this festive day in style, evening festivities are organised in various locations throughout the capital. Here are some examples: La Démence: a wild party at Hall 12 of Brussels Expo; Catclub x Spek Pride edition and Trio #4: Los Ninos & Vicuna & 3d.hd.404

Good to know:

• More information at www.visit.brussels/lgbt and www.pride.be

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Like every year, the various Pride Festival events will take place in the month of May. It is a key moment in the life of the LGBTI+ communities in Brussels. That’s because, apart from being a festive event, Belgian Pride is the ideal time for putting forward the community appeals and suggesting new lines of political thought.

The theme chosen for this year is “Your local power”. The chance for the three main Belgian LGBTI+ associations – Rainbow House Brussels, Arc-en-ciel Wallonie et çavaria – to call out their future elected representatives on questions of respect for diversity in everyday life, as the communal elections approach.

People’s lives are lived first and foremost in their street, district, municipality or city, where they live or through which they pass. Local politics, therefore, have a huge impact on the daily life of every citizen, including that of these LGBTI+ residents. This is why in 2018, Belgian Pride is putting municipalities and cities under the rainbow banner. On Friday 18 May, it will be the Rainbow Village’s turn to kick off the Belgian Pride weekend festivities. The bars in Saint-Jean district will host DJ sets and other performances put on for the occasion. On Saturday 19 May, the unmissable Belgian Pride procession, the grand finale of the festival fortnight, will fill the centre of the capital with life.

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This is the 23rd edition of Belgian Pride, which, as always, opens the European Pride season; with the European capital demonstrating its diversity and openness to the LGBTI+ community with a two-week festival.

Traditionally starting on 4th May, Belgian Pride kicks off the celebrations by offering a range of activities. These continue up until the final days, 17th-20th, and then culminates with festival goers parading the streets of Brussels through to the fanfare of the Meyboom; passing rainbow decorated buildings and swinging by the Manneken-Pis in its specially designed costume for the occasion.

In addition to the all this, Belgian Pride will be full of new developments this year. The parade will be four days instead of three; will cover new initiatives and activities focusing on the theme of « Local Change and Local Politics”; A silent march against intolerance, roundtable talks at BOZAR, parties, and concerts right in city centre.

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Although acceptable in antiquity, homosexuality was associated with sin in Christian Europe and was repressed throughout the era. After the age of enlightenment and the many revolutions across Europe, homosexuality became legal in some societies, like France, and this extended to Belgium as it were under French dominion; which allowed same-sex relations as early as 1795. This is in stark contrast to other European nations, as places like the UK only made homosexuality legal in 1967.

Same-sex unions, however, were a separate issue, and these laws were not revised in Europe until the beginning of the 21st century, with The Netherlands being the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Once enacted, this created a domino effect across Europe, with Belgium following the Netherlands just two years after, in 2003; having had domestic partnership benefits since 2000.

This move ensured that gay people in Belgium have all the same marital, adoption, and anti discrimination rights as everyone else. And this sentiment is reflected in Belgian society, as the country had one of the first openly gay prime ministers, Elio Di Rupo, as well as two openly gay ministers.

And as of now, 15 out of the 25 countries that have legalised same-sex marriage worldwide are situated in Europe, with many more European countries seeking to bring in the legislation shortly. But this also coincides with the fact that many European countries have banned same-sex marriage, with Slovakia enacting the law as recently as 2014 and Hungary having repealed previously enstated rights that allow gay marriage and protect gay couples from discrimination.

So for gay activists, they continue to campaign for equal rights across Europe, but at least for the citizens of Belgium, people are free to live and express themselves however they see fit and live in a society that judges them not on preferences, but on the weight of their character.

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The festival has a humorous, frank and holistic approach to gender and sexuality and tries to explain them in the most complete way through the screens (presenting movies, short films, documentaries and experimental movies) and through parties, expositions, debates and concerts. The idea is challenging people, bringing them closer to the queer reality and to topics that may appear difficult to access or understand from the outside, as for example the use of neutral pronouns, being polyamorous or redefining the concept of solidarity.

The festival also offers two sections, Get Naked? Oh my god! and Queercore. They both focus on specific topics connected to the queer agenda, trying to approach the common theme from different points of view. Queercore offers music, visual art and politics to re-live the history of the community and its development through time. Starting from the 1980s, it describes the gay-lesbian scene in relations to punk until nowadays proposing, among the many activities, some movies by G. B. Jones, one of the initiators of the movement. Get Naked? Oh my god! focuses more on the human body, its forms, complexities and relation with sexuality. The movies related to this category aim to challenge the perception we have of bodies and of those who inhabit them; they want to challenge the stereotypes and definitions that have been applied so far to nudity, sexuality and self-identity, reshaping them and bringing them close again to the viewer.

The festival will take place from the 9^th to the 18^th of November at Nova, and it will present a unique portrait of love, relations, gender and sexuality, inviting the visitors to challenge their ideas and perceptions and read, in a new way, the queer universe.

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Tels Quels, a cultural association focused on raising awareness on the LGBT rights and community, decided to use art exactly for this purpose, presenting the topics of gender identity and sexual orientation in a different way. The organization, in fact, has created a festival throughout the month of October to enhance people’s knowledge on the LGBT community, encouraging people to discover more about it, to make questions and be curious.

The aim of the festival is not just to present the different minority groups (mainly gays, lesbians, trans and bi-people): it also invites the audience to reflect upon how society has been interacting with them in time. To do so, Tels Quels proposes a series of movies, expositions, theatre plays and events around Brussels and other Belgian cities. They will present the different shades and members of the LGBT community, focusing on their rights and history, as well as on broader sensitive topics such as prejudices, stereotypes, same-sex marriages, and raising kids.

The festival has been supported by several associations (LGBTQI and not), cultural centres, cinemas and theatres around Belgium, who want to fight against bias, prejudice, homophobia, transphobia and intolerance with culture. Join the Tels Quels festival and discover something new about the LGBT world.

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The setting is the Center for Fine Arts Bozar in Brusels, the context: a debate on the creation of an LGBTIQ inclusive society.

Despite all the efforts that have brought us closer to a more inclusive society, namely legislation and initiatives to change collective perception, sports remains an area where a lot of challenges still lie ahead.

“It’s the way sports like football have operated for decades,” continued Miss De Kock. “With all the jokes during training, if you’re weak for instance, it’s so common to call each other names that can be offensive. And when you speak to the coaches they say, ‘Oh, but we don’t mean it that way.’ They get all defensive, and it becomes difficult to talk to them.”

In many sports the pressures to comply with the norm seem to come down from top to bottom, the economics playing a determining factor.

“When a coach or a higher executive happens to find out, they come to the player in private and say, ‘Hey, we understand you, we really do. But for your own sake, it’d be better if you kept it private. Otherwise the press will eat you.”

And what about other domains, like humanities and the arts?

“Well, the opposite happens in the art scene,” said Saskia De Coster, a writer. “Plenty of men feel the need to act gay if they want to be accepted. Yes, it’s all really messed up.”

When asked if she thinks there have been changes in the way LGBTQI people are perceived in society she said, “Well, sometimes people mean well, they try to mean well. The say nice things to me like, ‘Really? You don’t look like a lesbian.’ Which is actually an insult. To me, they’re saying, You don’t really look like the person you are, which is a different way of saying, You don’t look the way I expected you would.”

The event is organized under the hospices of the Malta Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and Malta is a country where things have changed for the better for the LGBTQI community in the recent years.

“Malta is a very conservative country,” said Geert Sciot, Honorary Consul of Malta. “Four, five years I would have named Malta as a country where the situation for LGBTQI was challenging. But that has changed a lot, and it just shows you that being secular or not, being religious or not, is not necessarily linked to how people will think and react. Change is possible.”

Mahmoud Hassino was born in Syria but grew up in Saudi Arabia. There he witnessed the beheading of two men who had been in a same sex relationship.

“I started questioning religion when I was eight,” he said. “Even before I realized I was attracted to my classmates, to some of my teachers too.” He chuckled, then continued, “Look, I was four when I arrived in Saudi Arabia and women didn’t need to wear headscarfs. It all changed later, and I asked myself, Why was it ok and now it’s not? I couldn’t get my head around it.”

Among other activities, Mr. Hassino works in Germany at a shelter for LGBTQI asylum seekers and refugees.

“These people live in constant fear,” he said. “First, they flee their countries because they are in danger, then they come to Europe and they are grouped with their countrymen – that’s the way the welcoming centers operate here. Can you imagine? They are placed with their assailants, so to speak.”

During the Q&A someone raised a hand. “My name is Julia from Transgender Europe,” the person said. “I’m sorry but I don’t think the way the panelists were chosen is representative of the LGBTQI community.” People in the audience cheered. “Besides,” she went on, “I don’t think addressing the audience as, ladies and gentlemen, is appropriate.”

Saskia De Coster chose to answer. “We appreciate the criticism, which I think is a bit harsh, because this is the first time an event like this happens and I know the organizers put a lot of effort into it. Something we would be very receptive to hear instead is, What panelists would you have suggested?”

After the event I approached Julia and asked about the appropriate etiquette for addressing people in the audience. “It’s simple,” she said. “You can say, ‘Hello everyone, good evening.’ Of course this is when it’s an informal event. You can even use a variation and say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, and everyone else.’ Something like that could be fine.” She pauses for a moment, grins a little. “Or you can even say, ‘Good evening, distinguished everybody.’ How about that?”

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