The municipality has been preparing for it for several days: rainbow banners on the facade of the town hall, posters pasted everywhere… For its first pride march, Saturday June 18, the LGBT + center of the Mayenne, baptized La Gom’53, saw things on a grand scale: an associative village, a stroll and an official evening, all supported by the town hall of Laval.
“This event will show that LGBT people are present in the territory”, rejoices Julien Bastin, co-founder and vice president of Gom’53. It’s going to be the time to show that yes, we are potentially your bakers, your lawyers, your hairdressers, the people you meet on a daily basis without realizing it.
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Laval, 49,000 inhabitants in the middle of a rural territory, is not the city where homosexual and transgender people are the most visible. Blame it on discrimination and these anti-LGBT acts which are still very topical, reminds Julien Bastin: “Some people hear five or six remarks while strolling through Laval. Others get beat up because they are too mannered in the eyes of some or take remarks because they dare to hold hands with their companion. Until finally hiding: “We got marriage for all, before we got to hold hands serenely in the street.”
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You also sometimes have to live with the feeling of being alone, even rejected. Mathéo, 19, paid the price. He lost a high school friend: “He rejected me when he found out I was gay and suddenly he didn’t want to talk to me anymore. He blocked me from all social media. Very clearly he didn’t like LGBT people because he was very Catholic, very religious and couldn’t stand it at all.”
June 18, 2022: #Laval mobilizes to defend the rights of the LGBTQI+ community. This Saturday, on the occasion of the #marchofpride , @LaGom53 in partnership with @Laval_la_Ville offers a festive gathering from Boston Square. pic.twitter.com/AIOOg0eTvu
— Laval the City (@Laval_la_Ville) June 17, 2022
For Pierre, 41, the Pride March is both an opportunity to highlight this discrimination, but also to celebrate. “We don’t have gay bars here!” Originally from the capital, the librarian assures him: living in Paris or Laval, as an LGBT, is not the same.
“A lot of shop windows are decorated in anticipation of the march… But it’s not always well accepted.” Proof of this is this rainbow-coloured pedestrian crossing, vandalized the day after it was installed. “That’s why this march is very important”he concludes, inviting all Laval residents to participate in the march, whether or not they belong to the LGBT community.