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By Juliana Quintana

Photos: Luis Centurión Gómez

Celso Mirada “Kelembu”, a councilman from Ciudad del Este, accompanied by a group of anti-rights activists, stormed the Festival for Equality and Freedom last Saturday and began destroying decorations and assaulting demonstrators. The gathering took place in Parque Chino (Av. Bernardino Caballero, downtown Ciudad del Este) and drew approximately 100 people.

The event was meant to be a celebration. It kicked off at 10 a.m. with dance, music, singing, and community health services. They also set up a fair promoting independent projects. But on the other side of the fence, at the same time, the self-proclaimed “pro-life and pro-family” group hung sheets across the park's perimeter fence. Their aim was to block the view of the festival's activities from the outside “to protect the children's safety.” 

The festival organized by SomosGay Ciudad del Este was a political response to the attack suffered by members of the organization Diversxs de Alto Paraná a month ago. And, despite the LGBT organization's request for police protection, the councilman from the National Republican Association (ANR), "Kelembu," entered the park; he knocked down the tables and chairs and tore down the decorations that the organizers had put up earlier.

[READ ALSO: PARAGUAY: Mayor bans Encarnación's first LGBT march ]

“They even started shouting through loudspeakers and horns, just like they did in Hernandarias. The difference is that this time, we came prepared. We had a much louder sound system that drowned out the noise, and we had arranged for police protection. We couldn't let the conservative narrative take hold,” said Simón Cazal, co-founder of SomosGay, in an interview with Presentes. 

[READ ALSO: Anti-rights groups attacked LGBT march in Paraguay ]

One hypothesis put forward by Sofía Masi, an activist with the feminist group Kuña Poty, is that the police did not cooperate with the activists because they had orders not to touch the councilman once he entered the park. “It hurts because it was so frustrating to be at the festival in a public square, with people exercising their right to freedom of expression, and on the other side, an authority figure who came to attack us. He had wires and bombs,” she said. 

Let him cast the first stone.

Alpra Zolange, a 22-year-old non-binary person, was in charge of hosting the SomosGay event and recounted that the aggressors called them “faggots” and “ toads with tits.” “They insulted us, threw stones at us, and poured water on our faces. When they entered, even parents attacked our comrades,” she said.

Members of the LGBT collective attempted to cut the sheets with scissors from inside the park, but a series of scuffles and arguments ensued. Anti-rights protesters, who were throwing stones at the activists, injured a 17-year-old girl who was standing next to them, holding the sheet, and she had to be treated by firefighters. 

In addition, a “pro-life pro-family” supporter who was throwing stones tried to take away the camera of a journalist from the Vanguardia for recording the acts of violence.

“When I hear someone sing 'don't mess with my children,' it brings back many memories of my childhood. They interfered in my childhood when I came out of the closet. They messed with me and discriminated against me from a very young age,” Alpra continued.

“From darkness to light”

Days before the festival, a campaign of harassment began to take shape, specifically aimed at disrupting the event. The Alto Paraná Governorate invited pro-life activist Sara Winter to give a lecture entitled " From Darkness to Light – Gender Ideology and Family Destruction ." Winter also gave a series of talks, some of which were attended by children and teenagers sent from their schools.

“With this resolution, they want to violate the national constitution and internationally guaranteed rights. It is a policy of rolling back rights won after long struggles. From municipalities, governorships, senators, and the State itself, resolutions are being issued declaring themselves pro-life and pro-family,” Masi stated.

“It outrages me that these people treat us this way. For five years, SomosGay has been fighting in Ciudad del Este, and we've faced blockade after blockade. This has to serve to unite us even more as an LGBT collective; we're not going to stop. They have to understand that we are human beings and we are full of love,” Alpra stated. And Masi added: “We believe we are in a new dictatorship: the dictatorship of the anti-rights movement.”