Aline Tracol, at 75 years old, is long past her days of pounding the pavement and crowding shoulder to shoulder with thousands of fellow revelers at Pride parades in her French hometown.  

Though she has still wanted to take part—she was on the front lines of the LGBTG+ rights movement decades ago—she’s reluctantly been sitting out the annual event for years, unable to navigate conditions that are decidedly unfriendly to septuagenarians.

Until recently, that is, when Tracol and about 80 other seniors got a bird’s eye view of the festivities in Paris through a first-of-its-kind program from ad agency BETC Paris and its new client Misterb&b, often referred to as the queer version of Airbnb.

The partners blocked out apartment rentals along the Paris Pride route, making sure they were equipped to be welcoming to elderly folks, with air conditioning, cold drinks, snacks, quiet rooms, elevators and other amenities. The guests could sit above the street-level fray, yet still be part of the party by watching it from windows and balconies.

The project, called Silver Pride, was the brainchild of David Martin Angelus, executive creative director at BETC, who called it “a labor of love” and a way “to create a space for the seniors who gave us Pride itself.”

Silver Pride’s debut in Paris—which unveiled a custom-created Pride flag with a silver stripe—will serve as a template. Two more events are planned so far, one for Europride in Malta in September and the other for Atlanta Pride in October, but others could be added.

“In our heads, we’d love to turn this into a yearly initiative that happens in different cities,” Angelus told Adweek.

Honoring the pioneers

Silver Pride was several months in the making, but much longer as a gestating idea for Angelus, who identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community. He felt compelled to uplift the early activists who had become sadly invisible in the modern movement.

“I realized that the community itself needed to be reminded that we can’t forget the generation that fought for our rights,” Angelus told Adweek. “We needed to bring them back to Pride, honor them, celebrate them.”

At a time when LGBTQ+ rights are under attack in the U.S. and elsewhere, it’s crucial to lift up the trailblazers.

“They fought against prejudice, hate, they were pointed out as the culprits of the AIDS epidemic,” Angelus said. “But if there are laws today for gay marriage, against discrimination, for gay adoption … if we have something called Pride month at all, it’s thanks to their blood, sweat and tears.”

Pagine: 1 2