The rainbow flag was hoisted on the square in front of Porto City Hall this Wednesday to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and “remind that there is a community that needs to be supported,” said the president of the association Variações.
“Raising the flag has a lot of symbolism and is meant to remind you that there is a community and people to support,” said Diogo Vieira da Silva, president of the Variações association, in an interview with the president and advisers to Porto. Chamber that has joined the Variações promoted initiative representing the LGBTQI+ community.
Diogo Vieira da Silva also emphasized that “the main thing is the flag. [arco-íris] be raised.”
The mayor of Porto, the independent Rui Moreira, also recalled the “commitment” of the council to join the initiative, and the CDU adviser, Hilda Figueiredo, the importance of “protecting the rights of all citizens.”
At 11:05 a.m., the rainbow flag was already hoisted in the square in front of the Chamber of Porto, on an initiative that was attended by members of the executive branch, namely the mayor of Porto, social action adviser Fernando Paulo, CDU. adviser Hilda Figueiredo and adviser PS Jorge Garcia.
After the flag was raised, the various organizations involved in the event were heard by Councilor Fernando Paulo.
The initiative was announced to Luce by the president of Variações – Associação de Comércio e Turismo LGBTI de Portugal on May 9, the day after the leader of the chamber rejected by a majority the proposal to “officially” raise the rainbow flag in the town hall.
“Since, unfortunately, we have not seen much activity on the part of party or political formations to raise the flag, since, on the one hand, we have autarchy, which claims that protocol issues do not allow raising the flag, and, on the other hand, we have a BE who makes a proposal to raise the flag, knowing that it will not be approved, instead of making a proposal to change the protocol (…), we decided to go ahead with a peremptory proposal,” said Diogo Vieira da Silva.
At a meeting of the executive, BE Councilor Maria Manuel Rola called on the municipality to take “commitment to the city by bringing together all associations of any nature”.
In response to the councilor, the mayor of Porto said that the municipality would repeat the symbolic action carried out in 2022 and criticized BE for wanting to “support the cause of civil society”.
Rui Moreira used a photo taken during the 2022 campaign to highlight that all EAs, with the exception of BE, took part in this initiative.
Clarifying that BE was not present at the symbolic action as it was associated with the parish councils of Bonfim and Campagna where the rainbow flags were raised, Maria Manuel Rola stated that this year, with such a coincidence of events, BE will not be present.
This was the second year in a row that BE proposed to the City Council of Porto to raise the rainbow flag at City Hall.
At the executive meeting on May 16, 2022, voting on the recommendation of BE in the same sense, President Rui Moreira stated that “the municipality is not pushing the initiatives”, giving examples on May 1 or April 25, but who “supports” them.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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