Some of my friends compare the gay parade with Christmas. I mean, a queer, festive Christmas during which the LGBT community seems to rise from darkness and gather together. During June, Mexico City seems unexpectedly full of festivals, parties, lectures and readings honoring queer pride.
Fortunately, the meetings and festivals are not organized only in the DF. Other cities’ queer communities show their pride in the streets. Needlesly to say, every parade is organized in a different social context, different background, and faces different obstacles.
A clear example of this is the couple of parades scheduled for the next week. The first one will be on June 13th, in Guadalajara–also called Gaydalajara. The city is one of the busiest industrial and management hubs after Mexico City, and it’s considered the gayest city in Mexico.
A few hours away from Puerto Vallarta–a gay attraction, especially for foreigners in search for beautiful beaches–Guadalajara’s queer population still faces discrimination, double moral standards, and machismo.The motto of the parade is Derechos, Laicidad y Democracia (“Rights, Secularism, and Democracy’). If you want to make a stop before or after going to the beach, click here for more information.
The second parade will be in Monterrey, in the northern state of Nuevo León. Here, a young 9th Gay Pride will be celebrated on June 27th, with the motto Es nuestra elección (“It is our choice”). Monterrey is one of the richest cities in the country, due to its development as an industrial center. In spite of the young marketing and management students at the expensive Tecnológico de Monterrey university, society in Monterrey is still quite conservative, which, I think, makes the parade more meaningful. If you happen to be around, for more information and a clear map, please click here.
Pride in Mexico City will be on June 20th. It’s the oldest in the country and it has even considered the ‘national” pride, since a lot of people come from nearby states, such as Querétaro, Tlaxcala, and Hidalgo. More on that later.
Gay Parade in Guadalajara: June 13th, 3 p.m., Calle 28 de Enero No. 368 Barrio de Analco, Guadalajara, Jalisco.
Gay Parade in Monterrey: June 27th, 6 p.m., Metro General Anaya, Monterrey, Nuevo León.