With the theme "always too much", Pride Marseille's Steering Committee wanted to make visible the labels we are given. These markers of our many identities lead to discrimination and systemic violence. This is why we are asking for indispensable societal and legal advances.

These labels we are stuck with

This year, Pride Marseille wanted to highlight the labels that are too often attached to LGBTI+ communities in order to re-evaluate their impact and their legitimacy. We inevitably heard that our community was often "always too much": "too big", "too racialized", "too trans", "too dyke", "too fag", "too queer", “too old”, “too HIV-positive”… Our community is often criticized for being “always too loud” during Pride Month: we would always be too present in the media, always too extravagant, always too proud. We would do "too much" for "not so much". Pride Marseille would like to pay tribute to all those who are described as "always too much"because these labels are markers among others of our many identities, and they also lead to systemic discrimination and violence. This is why we are asking the public authorities for the societal and legal advances that are essential for our peers.

Still too many casualties

Following the lockdowns, it is common to believe that victims of LGBTIphobia have been sheltered. In reality, violence is not restricted to the public space. It is often in the private sphere and with the most intimate people that LGBTI+ people are at risk. The lockdown period has meant slow agony, especially for the youngest among us. Having to hide one's sexual orientation or gender identity from those closest to us has become even more impossible, even more unbearable. 

We stand in solidarity with all the families of the victims of the past year, but we have a special thought for Luna, a young trans high school student who died in Lille, in mid-December, at the age of 17.  We ask the whole educational system to use the first names of trans people, whatever the type of school they attend. The administrative heaviness can and must be bypassed, as the survival of these students sometimes depends on it. This demand goes hand in hand with a continuous training of all educational staff on the subject of LGBTIphobia. The existing systems are still in their infancy and the precious work of volunteers from associations cannot replace the permanent inclusion of these subjects in teachers training.

In recent years, new voices have been heard, those of the victims of conversion therapy, often hidden behind the name of "spiritual retreats", "love learning". In certain private schools, or even behind parallel medical specialties run by charlatans... they hide a terrible reality: fanatics and ideologues of all persuasions believe that it is possible to change sexual orientation or to restrict gender identity. No one will be able to dictate who we are: we therefore ask the political majority to ban conversion therapy. We will be adamant on this! The existing legal arsenal is not the firm and logical response to what is no longer an epiphenomenon in France. A bill from MP Laurence Vanceunebrock exists. It is time for parliamentarians to seize it.

Finally, while we welcome the measures taken by the municipality in May 2021 on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, we must point out that the promise of the creation of an LGBTI+ Center in Marseille has still not been fulfilled. We know that political time is long, but the time of the victims cannot be shortened. We therefore ask this promise not to be a recurring issue: Marseille must be provided with all possible means to help the associations on the ground.

We also ask that all elected officials of the territory denounce all forms of LGBTIphobia that are brought to their attention and in particular in their respective administrations: the public service must be exemplary. We also want our elected officials to imagine policies to fight against LGBTIphobia across the board: people who are discriminated against do not care about the administrative divisions of the State.

Still too much insecurity

The protection and recognition of all by the state and institutions must be unconditional. "Liberty, equality and fraternity" must no longer be mere words. However, the precariousness of many people indicates the contrary.

We demand the access to health care and to medical follow-up to be possible for all, regardless of HIV status, sexual orientation, gender identity, real or supposed origin, territory or profession. Discrimination is the bedrock of STIs, HIV and hepatitis, which are still too often faced by LGBTI+, migrant and sex worker populations. Prevention and protection policies are often inaccessible to the at-risk population. We demand unconditional and facilitated access for all to risk reduction measures, to means of protection, to contraception and to screening. These changes must be accompanied by the implementation of a social and protection policy for sex workers. We demand that the state and the territorial institutions work together to fight against exploitation, forced labor and trafficking, with a particular attention paid to people with foreign origins or in irregular situations. We ask the state to repeal the law of April 13, 2016, which prohibits the purchase of sexual acts and participates in the precariousness of sex workers.

We also demand the regularization of all LGBTI+ asylum seekers. At a time when the European Union declares itself a zone of freedom for LGBTI+ people, France fails to welcome people being persecuted in their country because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. France also fails to officially denounce countries where repression continues to be organized.

This two-speed recognition of the realities of LGBTI+ people across borders has consequences on homoparental families and contributes to making their daily life precarious. We therefore ask for the transcription of civil status for children born abroad by MAP. It is unthinkable that French law separates children from their parents and complicates any administrative or legal act for the mere reason of not wanting to recognize these new families. For the same reasons, we ask for the automatic recognition of the second parent during a MAP, as well as a real reform of filiation separating the notions of father and mother from biology and taking into account transparent and homoparental families.

Precariousness can establish itself on LGBTI+ populations of all ages, and our seniors are also victims of it in many ways. Thus, we call for a rethinking of the guardianship system, which is designed primarily to protect assets and not individuals. This accentuates the loss of autonomy and is felt as the implementation of an additional dependence imposed by the person who is supposed to protect. In the same spirit, the weakening of LGBTI+ elderly people is achieved through the denial of their affective or gender identity when they are in specialized structures. Thus, we demand the creation of specialized habitats for LGBTI+ seniors who wish to live their identity and sexuality without criticism or judgment.

Still too much... control

If France is a state of law, it also has duties. The Constitution ensures that equality before the law is the same for all citizens without distinction. Today, the established system goes against these fundamental principles: the state still exerts too much control over the bodies of our community.

We demand that France put an end to non-consensual mutilation and hormonal "treatments" on newborns and young intersex children. While the National Assembly rejected an amendment to the bioethics law that went in this direction, the French state was called to order by the UN in 2016, as well as by the European Court of Human Rights for "torture" and "infantile mutilations". Five years later, these calls to order still have not been followed by changes in the law. This is not worthy of a country that claims to be democratic.

We also call for an end to the psychiatric treatment of trans people in medical transition. Access to medicalized transition pathways must be done without any validation or diagnostic procedures and on the basis of informed consent, for trans people of all ages. The bodies and identities of trans people should not be at the mercy of conglomerates of doctors, especially self-proclaimed experts in the field of psychiatry, who deny the freedom to choose one's practitioner. In matters of medical and administrative transition, self-determination must be the rule. 

We ask for a free procedure of change of mention of "sex", accessible on simple declaration. We also ask for the rewriting of the circular of 2016 on the change of first name, as well as the explicit recognition in the Law of the gender identity of non-binary persons. In the long term, we want the removal of the mention of "sex" from civil status.

We wish to reiterate the need to repeal the prohibition of purchase of sexual acts of the law of April 13, 2016 and all forms of repression that would reinforce the situation of precariousness and health distress of sex workers. We demand the implementation of a social and protection policy for SWs by fighting against exploitation, forced labor and trafficking, with special attention to foreign and/or illegal persons.

We simply ask that our bodies belong to us. We want the creation of procedures to make gamete donation more accessible, to allow self-preservation of oocytes, not to make partner consent mandatory, and to lift the ban on double gamete donation. We demand that trans men and non-binary people, lesbians and single women have access to medically assisted reproduction. We demand the opening of MAP, with 100% reimbursement, for everyone, regardless of family status or gender identity. We also demand the possibility to choose and to have access to matching during MAP, as well as specific recruitment campaigns for non-white donors in MAP centers to make waiting times more equal.

Never too much! 

Yes, today we affirm it and we claim it: it is no longer serious to be always too fag, racialized, queer, androgynous, seropositive, dyke, old or trans... These insults we're being stuck with must be our strength and a part of our many identities. Today, more than ever in this period where ideologues of all sides wish to divide us, we need all of those who are "always too much". We need all of those who believe in equal rights and in social justice. Tomorrow, we will fight for all the victims, for all of those who need it, with all the strength and all the pedagogy livening us up. Because, if we may be "always too much", we will never be too many to carry out our fights.

Pride Marseille 2021 demands:

1. An immediate end to non-consensual mutilation and hormonal treatments of intersex children and adolescents.
2. An end to the psychiatric treatment of the transition process of trans people.
3. A diversion program of the procedure of change of the mention "sex".
4. A rewriting of the 2016 first name change circular.
5. The use of the correct first name of trans people throughout the school life of the students concerned.
6. Continuous training of all educational staff on LGBTIphobia, in collaboration with the relevant associations.
7. Immediate, unconditional regularization of all LGBTI+ migrants without any "verification survey"
8. A public health policy for risk reduction related to STIs and drug use for all people concerned.
9. Access for all, regardless of gender identity and family situation to MAP and gamete donation and conversation techniques.
10. A reform separating filiation from biology, and the automatic recognition of the second parent in case of MAP.
11. The transcription of civil status for children born abroad by MAP.
12. A repeal of the prohibition on the purchase of sex acts from the Act of April 13, 2016.
13. The implementation of a social and protection policy for SWs.
14. Respect for the choices of senior citizens concerning the end of their life.
15. The reworking of the guardianship and curatorship system.
16. An explicit legislation for prohibiting conversion therapies.
17. The creation of an LGBTI+ center in Marseille.
18. That the elected officials of the territory take clear positions against all forms of LGBTIphobia.
19. The commitment of the territory's elected officials to an ambitious and transversal policy against LGBTIphobia.
20. Finally, we ask our communities to be aware of and fight against all forms of discrimination within the said communities.