The phenomenon of loneliness and isolation was hard on many members of our community, be it older people who do not have a close family circle, or younger people who, for example, were locked up in their own homes with queerphobic family members. Rosa Lëtzebuerg asbl draws a bleak conclusion of this period now that many restrictions have been lifted again: in exceptional situations like a pandemic, no one is prepared for the social consequences, queer visibility decreased drastically and the extinction of safe spaces and spaces for queer culture increased. The pandemic has also affected the legislative process: in the past 12 months, no laws have been brought to a vote in parliament to improve the legal situation of LGBTIQ+ people. Now it is time to counteract this.
Rosa Lëtzebuerg would like to continue with the tradition of focusing on some points of our list of demands during Luxembourg Pride Week in order to encourage policymakers to take action. This year, we have agreed on 6 points that would be easy to implement or where there is a particular urgency:
- No interventions that are not necessary for life or health without the informed consent of the people concerned!
- Depsychiatrisation of trans people with depsychiatrised access to gender reassignment measures.
- Further gender options in civil status
- Automatic parental recognition
- Creation of Safe Spaces
- Solidarity with queer refugees from Ukraine and other countries
Please find the details in the attached press kit.
Luxembourg Pride in the context of the Capital of Culture programme around Esch2022
Rosa Lëtzebuerg has been working on the preparations for Pride 2022 for more than three years now. As the host city of our Pride has become the European Capital of Culture, it was clear to Rosa Lëtzebuerg asbl that the Pride, which we see as a platform for queer culture, must contribute something to this event. We are therefore extremely happy to have been chosen as a project leader.
After those three years of preparation, our members and volunteers have put together a very exciting programme, which we would like to implement together with our supporters, especially the city of Esch-sur-Alzette.
This year, Luxembourg Pride Week is once again trying to combine art, culture and socio-political topics and we are proud to present the first highlights of this year’s programme.
1. Pride Headquarters
In cooperation with the city of Esch-sur-Alzette and frEsch asbl, we have the possibility to set up Pride Headquarters during the whole Pride Week in 2022. It will be located in Bâtiment4 in Esch-sur-Alzette, just 500 meters away from the town hall square where the street festival will take place on 9 and 10 July. The Pride Headquarters open daily for visitors and offer daily animation from after work parties to evening events, as well as an information centre. The exhibition “LGBTIQ+ History in Luxembourg” can be visited here during Pride Week.
2. Luxembourg Queer Arts Festival
After the festival “Les Transculturelles” was integrated into the Luxembourg Pride Week, it is now time again to give the many queer artists in and around Luxembourg a bigger platform. This festival opens Pride Week and will take place from 1 to 3 July at the Pride Headquarters in Bâtiment4.
3. Amsterdam Rainbow Dress
Currently, homosexuality is still punishable in over 71 countries around the world. The art project Amsterdam Rainbow Dress visualizes this in a particularly impressive way: the Rainbow Dress is composed of the flags of those countries. After the dress was already exhibited in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum in front of Rembrandt’s Night Watch, in the Prado in Madrid as well as in the plenary hall of the European Parliament, we were able to invite this art project to Luxembourg. The Amsterdam Rainbow Dress will be exhibited in Esch and can be seen during the commemoration ceremony on 4 July. The well known Luxembourg artist Edsun will present a performance in the Rainbow Dress on the occasion of the commemoration ceremony.
4. Internationale Konferenz
In collaboration with the Representation of the European Commission in Luxembourg and Uni.lu, we will present a series of conferences on LGBTIQ+ activism in Europe on 7 July.
5. A street party with a top-class line up
For many years, the most popular element of our Pride Week has been the street festival, which combines political topics with queer culture. We see the street festival as an invitation to the whole of society to celebrate the colourful diversity of living together with us.
Within the framework of the Capital of Culture programme, we not only managed to expand the street festival to two days, we also want to offer more space to queer artists with a second stage.
The programme has it all:
On Saturday July 9, besides George Philippart, DJ Pippa will take the stage at Place Helen Buchholtz. Local headliners include CHAiLD and Edsun on the main stage. As a big highlight, thanks to the support of the city of Esch-sur-Alzette and frEsch asbl, none other than Boy George & Culture Club will get the city centre dancing.
On Sunday July 10, Daniel Schumacher, will return with his his mind-blowing perfomance, hopefully this time without heavy rain. The programme will be rounded off with Eurovision Song Contest participants Jendrik and two-time Song Contest veteran Poli Genova.
With Leona Winter, as well as many local artists, fans of drag art will also get their money’s worth.
The complete programme will be available on the official website in the coming weeks: www.luxembourgpride.lu
