Porto City Council will light up facade with rainbow flag | Human rights

The mayor of Porto committed, at this Monday’s executive meeting, to using the facade of the Town Hall to project the rainbow flag to mark the international day of the Fight against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. The idea should be put into practice on the night of May 16th, before international day. “It’s a good model”, admitted the mayor.

The debate was based on a proposal from the Bloco de Esquerda which, once again, asked the Porto City Council to officially raise the LGBT flag in the main building to “demonstrate the commitment of the executive and the city council against this type of violence which is internationally recognized”. For Maria Manuel Rola, “Porto cannot ignore this day” and must demonstrate “its commitment to this fight”.

Rui Moreira was peremptory: the model suggested by BE will not be followed. The municipality will, following the same practice as the previous year, raise the LGBT flag on a flagpole placed in front of the building and not on the official flagpoles.

“If we could put an end to this type of violence by raising flags, I would have the chamber painted rainbows. The problem is that it doesn’t solve it. It’s pure demagogy”, he considered, also refusing, with the same argument, to declare the municipality a city free from LGBTQIA+ violence.

Regarding the gay pride marches, the mayor said that the two authorization requests have already been approved: one will take place in Largo Amor de Perdição and the other in Parque da Pasteleira.

Alberto Machado, PSD councilor, accused the Bloco de Esquerda of seeing the world in “black and white”, saying he grew up under the motto “all different and all equal” and refusing to adhere to the Portuguese reality based on data presented by the Bloc councilor about discrimination against the LGBT community.

Rosário Gambôa recalled the importance of gestures and words: “The day does something very important: it says that this problem exists”, he pointed out. “It’s important to say, denounce, make visible what can happen under the table.”

Ilda Figueiredo, from the CDU, also signed the BE proposal, which ended up being rejected by the majority of Moreira and PSD. For the communist councilor, “there continues to be a set of discrimination against some people” and the international day is relevant to “draw attention” to this.