04/05/2023 | Writer: Selma Koçak
Ilgaz, who attended May Day with the Rainbow Cortege in İzmir, says: We will continue to be at the rallies as long as May Day is celebrated, and we are looking forward to march enlarging the Rainbow Cortege next year.
May 1st Labor and Solidarity Day has just passed. Workers and laborers took to the streets all over the country. Earlier on the elections, rallies overflowed with people who stand against the system and policies of exploitation.
May Day was celebrated at Gündoğdu Square in İzmir. LGBTI+s participated in May Day with two separate corteges: Colors of Resistance and Rainbow Cortege.
Rainbow Cortege participated in the march and the rally with anti-speciesism banners beside the main banner written “LGBTIQ+ rights are union rights” on.
Ilgaz, who marched with the cortege told their impressions from May Day in İzmir to KaosGL.org. They began their remarks by saying “I observed that we received many positive reactions during the May Day march” and went on as follows:
“Many people positively interested in our banners and took photos while waiting to march. We read our declaration, chanted out slogans and we were applauded by the people around.”
This was Ilgaz’s first May Day. Expressing their concerns Ilgaz said: “All these made me really happy because it was my first May Day and I was afraid of being subjected to negative reactions” and they are pleased with the positive reactions:
“As far as I heard from my friends they were subjected to strange stares however it didn’t bother me because positive reactions were much more than the negative ones. Surely we will encounter some people who are not full of love and who are trouble with our existence, however we were there in order to demonstrate that LGBTIQ+s and sex workers belong to that rally. We shouted as loud as we could to say get used to it, we are here. We shouted at the top of our voices to declare that we would not vote for the mentality that constantly targets LGBTIQ+s, women and Kurdish people; that causes death of thousands of people for the sake of rent policies; that left thousands of lives under the wreckage; that slaughters the nature. We will continue to be at the rallies as long as May Day is celebrated, and we are looking forward to march enlarging the Rainbow Cortege next year.”
Tags: human rights
