Athens Pride 2025

We count joys, especially those celebrated at Athens Pride.

Moments of pride, liberation and empowerment at our first prides. The joy of the first “YES”. The joy of acceptance and support from our own people. We count kisses, love, we count all the “I love yous” that we feared would never be given to us.

We count losses

Sisters, brothers and sisters we lost to the violence and hatred that targeted us and continues to target us in dark alleys, on public transportation, in bustling squares, in our own homes. We count loved ones we lost to state indifference to the AIDS epidemic, our own people who did not fit into the suffocating framework of patriarchy and normality. The women who were publicly denounced in 2012 as HIV-positive – an institutional decision of vilification and stigmatization – that cost human lives. Zackie, Ana, Diona and many more names that we may never know.

We count victories

The civil partnership agreement, the legal recognition of gender identity, the marriage of same-sex couples, the protection law for intersex minors, the increasing visibility and representation of LGBTQI+ people in institutions and in the public sphere.