An official poster promoting Paris Pride that depicts a white man being assaulted has been condemned as violent and extremist, forcing the Île-de-France region to withdraw its support.
InterLGBT, a group of activist associations representing the LGBT lobby in France, unveiled the poster for the Pride march (Marche des Fiertés) to be held at the end of June. The image, which looks like an explicit call for violence, was condemned on social media, to the point that the Île-de-France region, a partner of the event, was forced to withdraw its support.
The garish poster depicts various characters united against the “reactionary international,” symbolized by a white man who is humiliated and pushed to the ground, held by his tie—in a position that could suggest he is about to be hanged. Among his torturers are a veiled woman and another woman wearing accessories in the colours of the Palestinian flag.
The image began circulating online and was denounced by numerous influencers. Even France’s gay and lesbian Jewish group was shocked by the imagery. Its spokesman, Beit Haverim, denounced “ill-considered communication choices” that could trigger “violence or acts of hostility.” In LGBT activist circles, the radicalization of InterLGBT is a cause for concern. A former spokesman for the organization believes that “the influence of [the far left] La France Insoumise (LFI)” is now “blatant.”
InterLGBT has attempted to defend itself and criticized “gross misinterpretations” of the poster. The colours on the bag carried by the person on the right of the poster are not Palestinian colours, it claims, but “the flags of Hungary and Bulgaria, where Pride events are currently banned.” The fact remains that the woman in question is wearing a pin with the Palestinian flag, and that the central character on the poster is a veiled woman. This is not the least of the paradoxes when one considers the treatment of homosexuals, “queers,” and trans people in the Muslim world. InterLGBT stands by this visual choice in the name of the famous “convergence of struggles.”
The scandal erupted not just over the content of the poster, but also over the institutional support given to the event. At the bottom, we can see that the Pride march is supported, unsurprisingly, by the city of Paris and its socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, who is pro-LGBT, but also by the Île-de-France region, despite it being led by the Right in the form of Valérie Pécresse, former candidate of the Les Républicains party in the 2022 presidential election. Valérie Pécresse was therefore challenged on social media by French citizens, particularly residents of her region, who were shocked that public funds could be used to support such an initiative. The regional president was therefore forced to take a public stand denouncing the poster, requesting the removal of her administration’s logo, and withdrawing a promised subsidy. “The Île-de-France region has requested the removal of its logo and the subsidy will not be paid,” Valérie Pécresse announced on X.
“Veiled women, white men martyred and caricatured as fascists, support for Palestine, while homosexuals, bisexuals, and trans people are being massacred there… these are the hallmarks of extremists,” the vice president of the Rassemblement National, Sébastien Chenu, said. Conversely, the president of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, expressed his support for the organizing association.
