International LGBTQIA+ Pride Day is celebrated every June 28 – in reference to the Stonewall movement in the United States in 1969.
In an interview with CNN Radio on CNN no Plural, presenter, journalist and drag queen Ikaro Kadoshi explained the importance of the date to him.
“It’s a day to be proud of being alive, literally,” he said. He recalled that 262 people “died for who they are” last year.
Five people belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community die a week in Brazil: “It is the country that kills the most this population, and for the 13th consecutive year, it is almost a civil war against us.”
Even so, Ikaro ponders that there have been achievements since the 70s. “The last one was in 2020, with the possibility of gay men being able to donate blood. It looked like a medieval rule, but it happened.”
The work of self-acceptance, according to the presenter, doesn’t stop: “I’m discovering what it’s like to be proud of me, with the world all the time saying I don’t belong anywhere, it’s a daily and uninterrupted process.”
“The world took many pieces from me, I am aware of this, and I want to charge with interest and monetary correction”, he added.
It’s been 22 years of living as a drag queen: “I resignified my life, I lost almost all my friends in 1999 and gained others, a new group of people, more welcoming, people are different from each other and in our community it is no different, we were forged by machismo, we are not exempt.”
“Being an effeminate gay man and drag queen leaves me out of a lot of opportunities to hang out, but you find that a lot of people are free of that prejudice.”
Ikaro also called attention to the fact that Stonewall is known worldwide, but that it is necessary to “look at our history”: “In the midst of a dictatorship, in 1964, there was already a struggle against the oppressive system.”
“We have a rich history of conflict and that is unfeasible, we do not value our own history”, he evaluated.
For the journalist, the drag queen revolution is recent and “takes back its rightful place”: “Art has to be everywhere, drag queens are having a chance, it took a new generation for the world to understand that other guys would have to have a voice, and I’m glad I didn’t give up.”
Source: CNN Brasil
