European Pride

July 2013

In September 2010, 18 member cities of the European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA), which groups together the European organisers of Gay Pride events, gathered for a General Assembly in Rome which will host EuroPride 2011, on 11th June.

The bids from Tel-Aviv (Israel) and Marseille (France) to organise EuroPride in 2013 were considered during this assembly.

Greeted with applause by delegates, it was the bid from the LGP Association of Marseille which was selected. After Warsaw (2010), Rome (2011) and London (World Pride 2012), it is therefore Marseille which will play host to EuroPride in 2013, the biggest LGBT event in Europe.

In the year of Marseille-Provence 2013 “European capital of culture”, the “Marseille-Méditerranée” EuroPride will bring together the LGBT communities of Europe for 10 days of festivities and international conferences. All these events will take place during July 2013 with the highlight being the EuroPride march which aims to gather in Marseille, between 150,000 and 300,000 people.

LGP Marseille, founded in 1996, is the only French association to organise homosexual marches and has been a member of EPOA since 2004. During 2010, it was joined within the international organisation by the LGP Montpellier association. The LGP Marseille Association has been preparing to organise a EuroPride event for a number of years. In March 2010, it entered its official bid.

This is indeed a historic event for the French homosexual community because EuroPride Marseille will be the second European event of this type organised in France, after EuroPride Paris in 1997. This event boosted the visibility of homosexuals and placed LGBT issues in the media spotlight.
It accelerated political momentum for the Civil Solidarity Pact (PaCS) which was finally voted into law in 1999.

In a quest to achieve equal rights, homosexual marriage and the right to adopt, but also in order to promote the image of France and Marseille abroad, it is important that activists and commercial entities channel their energies around EuroPride Marseille-Méditerranée. It is in this spirit that the LGP Marseille Association will bring together, over coming weeks, players from the LGBT community to present the project validated by the European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA).


Contacts

LGP Marseille
27, rue Vacon
13001 Marseille

Gilles Dumoulin
gd@lgpmarseille.fr

Suzanne Ketchian
Tel. 06 28 92 22 60
sk@lgpmarseille.fr

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