Milano Pride

In celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community, Milan hosted Pride events across the city throughout the month of June. Despite a trend towards some conservative politics, the city has remained mostly accepting of people’s diverse sexual and romantic preferences, and it is not uncommon to see same-sex couples holding hands or kissing in the streets. 

As someone who comes from a very conservative state (Indiana), even while living in my far more progressive college town, I hardly encounter people being “out” openly in public spaces, so it was a wonderful surprise to see how many people were comfortable with signaling queerness in all sorts of different ways. For example, a week into my internship, one coworker excitedly told me that he went on a hike with his boyfriend over the weekend. A few days later, another coworker mentioned his plans to go to the Pride celebration in Turin with his friends. 

While with one of my queer friends, I was happy to stumble upon pride flags hung on apartment balconies around the city, and even a whole metro station painted in the colors of the rainbow: Porta Venezia, the home of LGBTQIA+ nightlife in Milan. 

Though the murals were first painted during 2019 Pride to show the LGBTQIA+ community that they were welcome there, the mayor and the ATM metro service agreed to leave them up permanently as a tribute to the people, making Porta Venezia not only Milan’s first gay neighborhood, but also the country’s first LGBTQIA+-dedicated urban transport stop. Overall, though, the city has a history of being supportive of the LGBTQIA+ community, with Milan being the first Italian city to legally register same-sex Civil Unions* in 2012.

Within Porta Venezia, Via Lecco remains the heart of queer life in Milan, taking the place of the former queer center of the city: Via Sammartini (though it too continues to host gay clubs and more). During Pride Week, the street is full of stands, food trucks, rainbow flags, and queer folks, as it is extremely well attended, most recently having an estimated attendance of over 300,000 people at the 2024 Pride Parade, held on Saturday, June 29. 

The city’s Pride Week also became so popular that it has expanded to a month-long affair, where countless festivals, concerts, performances, book events, presentations, comedy shows, talks, tours, drag shows, sporting events, and more occur, including MiX - International Festival of LGBTQ+ Cinema and Queer Culture - a celebration of queer films/filmmaking.