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Queer community celebrates diversity in Bern

Queer community celebrates its diversity in Bern
The queer community celebrates its diversity in Bern Keystone-SDA

Several thousand people gathered on Saturday afternoon for a parade as part of Bern Pride 2024. They are standing up for the rights of the queer community.

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The colourful rally started at Schützenmatte and headed towards Parliament Square. A festival with speeches and music took place there into the evening.

Among other things, the participants at Bern Pride called for the anti-racism penal code to be extended to trans and intersex people and for the possibility of a third gender entry at national level.

+ Which countries have adopted a third gender identity marker?

There is also a need for better legal protection for rainbow families and equal access to reproductive medicine, they said.

In addition to political demands, Pride is also an event that celebrates diversity. The parade was colourful and loud in keeping with the motto. The organisers had explicitly pointed out that they wanted queer symbols on flags and banners, for example.

For the most part, this wish was fulfilled. Only a small group on the fringes of the rally carried Palestine flags and chanted slogans such as “free Palestine”.

+ Switzerland has highest proportion of people not identifying as male or female

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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