Ban on public events during Pope’s visit sparks row with LGBTQIA+ community

Buenos Aires City announced that it would not authorize any public events in the city between November 6 and 13 due to the logistical demands of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Argentina, which will take place between 8 and 11.

The decision has caused backlash from the LGBTQIA+ community because the annual Pride celebration, which is traditionally planned for the first Saturday in November, this year is set to take place on the 7th, the day before the pope is scheduled to arrive for a four-day itinerary in the country.

This means that the march would have to be postponed to a later date, with November 21 being the current proposed alternative. 

Pride celebration organizers issued a statement rejecting the postponement, saying that pushing the event back is much more than just “changing dates.” 

“The march is a federal enterprise that has been in the making for months […] Thousands of people have already made travel arrangements and booked places to stay. Groups, artists, and organizations from across the country have made commitments,” the document read, adding that they would “see everybody” on November 7 in Buenos Aires.

The reason behind the ban In the official resolution passed on Friday, the city government stated that the pontiff’s visit is an “exceptional event” that will require multiple street cuts and detours. 

The document went on to say that this means that the security protocol will demand “extraordinary” public resources and that “preventive measures must be taken in order to avoid the overlap with other mass events.”

The text ends by stating that the government will not authorize “events, diversions, or acts in public places” between November 6 and 13, a period stretching from two days before the pope’s arrival to two days after. 

Fer Albornoz, press representative of the Pride organizers, laid out the implications of what postponing the event would mean. 

“Planning has been going on since March. There are 700 fair tents that have made arrangements to be selling at Plaza de Mayo and Plaza de los Dos Congresos that day, plus numerous musical acts and floats,” he told the Herald, adding that many would have to drop out if the event is postponed because they already have commitments for the proposed weekend. 

“It’s not about being inflexible, but the fact that postponing really has massive implications.”

Albornoz also pointed out that the closeness of the two events is important for many LGBTQIA+ community members, pointing to the group “Somos Centu” as a prime example. 

“Members of that group, which is part of the march’s organizing committee, are about sexual diversity and spirituality. Many of them are religious and were planning to attend the march and stay to welcome Pope Leo XIV.”

Although talks with city government officials are currently stalled following the official announcement of the ban, Albornoz pointed to a comment from Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno on Monday as a sign that negotiations could reopen.  

Asked about the march at a press conference announcing Pope Leo XIV’s agenda in Argentina, Quirno said the event had been included in the security protocol and would not have any impact on logistical planning. 

“We are hopeful that this opens a door to new talks,” Albornoz said.

The Catholic Church, meanwhile, has not weighed in. Asked for comment, a representative from the Argentine church told the Herald that they had no say in the issue and that the decision was “a matter of city government.”

Pride in Argentina The reason behind the agenda clash is partly due to the fact that Argentina’s Pride celebration takes place at a different time than in the rest of the world. 

The LGBTQIA+ community internationally celebrates pride in the month of June, culminating in pride marches around June 28. The date commemorates the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York, a series of clashes between queer civilians and police following a raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.

In Argentina, however, things are different for a very specific reason: weather.

“Our first pride march happened on July 2 [1992] in keeping with Stonewall, but remember that it’s the middle of winter here and it’s very cold,” a representative from the Argentine LGBT+ Federation, a nonprofit that brings together queer organizations from across the country, told the Herald in 2023 for a story on the Argentine march’s history. 

“At a time when HIV was battering us, exposing the LGBT community to the streets wasn’t logical. So we immediately started looking for an alternative date in warmer months and found that the first Argentine LGBT+ organization, Nuestro Mundo, was created prior to Stonewall in November 1967, so it was moved.”