ABSTRACT

Pride parades have been a way to display and celebrate both the diversity and unity of the LGBT community. This chapter engages with the question regarding which groups actually participate in Pride parades, analyzing protest survey data from 11 Pride parades in seven European countries (Czech Republic, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) and Mexico. An important strategy for the LGBT community has been to strategically show that apart from sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, LGBT people are “just like everybody else.” Yet, are Pride participants “just like everybody else,” in the sense that they mirror the social and political composition of the general population? The data indicated that much like new social movement demonstrators more generally, Pride participants are overwhelmingly from the middle strata, highly educated, young, and are politically left oriented (aside from Czech participants). This chapter investigates whether different mobilizing contexts lead to differences in which socio-demographic groups are mobilized, and what groups from the LGBT community – both in terms of sexual orientation and gender identity – primarily take part in Pride parades. The chapter furthermore analyzes Pride participants’ degree of involvement in LGBT organizations and various forms of political participation, and looks into the diversity of political positions and ideas about LGBT politics that characterize those taking part in Pride parades.