Gay pride parade
Encyclopedia
Pride parades for the LGBT community (also known as gay pride parades, pride events and pride festivals) are events celebrating lesbian
, gay
, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT
) culture. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage
. Most pride events occur annually and many take place around June to commemorate the Stonewall riots
, a pivotal moment in the modern LGBT rights movement.
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Early on the morning of Saturday, 28 June 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning persons rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn
in the Greenwich Village
neighborhood of New York City
. The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar
which catered to an assortment of patrons, but which was popular with the most marginalized people in the gay community: transvestites, transgender people, effeminate young men, hustlers, and homeless youth. The Stonewall riots
are generally considered to be the beginning of the modern gay rights movement, as it was the first time in modern history that a significant body of LGBT people resisted arrest.
proposed the first gay pride parade to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting in Philadelphia, along with his partner, Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes.
All attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for Mattachine Society
of New York, which abstained. Members of the Gay Liberation Front
(GLF) attended the meeting and were seated as guests of Rodwell's group, Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN).
Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell's apartment in 350 Bleecker Street
. At first there was difficulty getting some of the major New York
organizations like Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) to send representatives. Rodwell and his partner Sargeant, Broidy, Michael Brown
, Marty Nixon, and Foster Gunnison of Mattachine made up the core group of the CSLD Umbrella Committee (CSLDUC). For initial funding, Gunnison served as treasurer and sought donations from the national homophile organizations and sponsors, while Sargeant solicited donations via the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer for that organization. Other mainstays of the organizing committee were Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and Brenda Howard
of GLF. Believing that more people would turn out for the march on a Sunday, and so as to mark the date of the start of the Stonewall uprising, the CSLDUC scheduled the date for the first march for Sunday, June 28, 1970. With Dick Leitsch's replacement as president of Mattachine NY by "Michael Kotis" in April, 1970, opposition to the march by Mattachine ended.
On the same weekend gay activist groups on the West Coast of the United States held a march in Los Angeles
and a march and 'Gay-in' in San Francisco.
One day earlier, on Saturday, 27 June 1970, Chicago Gay Liberation organized a march from Washington Square Park
("Bughouse Square") to the Water Tower
at the intersection of Michigan
and Chicago avenues, which was the route originally planned, and then many of the participants extemporaneously marched on to the Civic Center (now Richard J. Daley) Plaza. The date was chosen because the Stonewall events began on the last Saturday of June and because organizers wanted to reach the maximum number of Michigan Avenue shoppers. Subsequent Chicago parades have been held on the last Sunday of June, coinciding with the date of many similar parades elsewhere.
The first marches were both serious and fun, and served to inspire the widening activist movement; they were repeated in the following years, and more and more annual marches started up in other cities throughout the world. In New York and Atlanta the marches were called Gay Liberation Marches, and the day of celebration was called "Gay Liberation Day"; in San Francisco and Los Angeles they became known as 'Gay Freedom Marches' and the day was called "Gay Freedom Day". As more towns and cities began holding their own celebrations, these names spread.
In the 1980s there was a cultural shift in the gay movement. Activists of a less radical nature began taking over the march committees in different cities, and they dropped "Gay Liberation" and "Gay Freedom" from the names, replacing them with "Gay Pride
".
Many parades still have at least some of the original political or activist character, especially in less accepting settings. However, in more accepting cities, the parades take on a festive or even Mardi Gras
-like character. Large parades often involve floats, dancers, drag queen
s, and amplified music; but even such celebratory parades usually include political and educational contingents, such as local politicians and marching groups from LGBT institutions of various kinds. Other typical parade participants include local LGBT-friendly churches such as Metropolitan Community Church
es, United Church of Christ
, and Unitarian Universalist
Churches, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and LGBT employee associations from large businesses.
Even the most festive parades usually offer some aspect dedicated to remembering victims of AIDS
and anti-LGBT violence. Some particularly important pride parades are funded by governments and corporate sponsors, and promoted as major tourist attractions for the cities that host them. In some countries, some pride parades are now also called Pride Festivals. Some of these festivals provide a carnival-like atmosphere in a nearby park or city-provided closed-off street, with information booths, music concerts, barbecues, beer stands, contests, sports, and games.
Though the reality was that the Stonewall riots themselves, as well as the immediate and the ongoing political organizing that occurred following them, were events fully participated in by lesbian women, bisexual people and transgender people as well as by gay men of all races and backgrounds, historically these events were first named Gay, the word at that time being used in a more generic sense to cover the entire spectrum of what is now variously called the 'queer' or LGBT community.
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, as many of the actual participants had grown older, moved on to other issues or died, this led to misunderstandings as to who had actually participated in the Stonewall riots, who had actually organized the subsequent demonstrations, marches and memorials, and who had been members of early activist organizations such as Gay Liberation Front
and Gay Activists Alliance. The language has become more accurate and inclusive, though these changes met with initial resistance from some in their own communities who were unaware of the historical events. Changing first to Lesbian and Gay, today most are called Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) or simply "Pride".
is home to the only gay pride marches on the African continent. Joburg Pride is held in Johannesburg
usually the 1st Saturday in October annually. The inaugural Joburg Pride parade was held in 1990 with fewer than one thousand participants and it has grown considerably throughout the years, with over 20,000 participants in 2009. There is also a gay pride march annually (usually in February) in Cape Town
. Soweto Pride takes place in Meadowlands
, Soweto
every year one week before Joburg Pride, and East Rand Pride a week before that in KwaThema, Gauteng
, a township on Johannesburg's East Rand. Soweto Pride began in 2008 and East Rand Pride in 2009.
n cities (Delhi
, Bangalore
, Pondicherry and Kolkata
) saw coordinated pride events. A rainbow parade was held at Chennai
the next day. About 2,200 people turned up overall. These were also the first pride events of all these cities except Kolkata, which had seen its first such event in 1999. The pride parades were successful, given that no right-wing group attacked or protested against the pride parade, although the opposition party BJP expressed its disagreement with the concept of gay pride parade. The next day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for greater social tolerance towards homosexuals at an AIDS event. On 16 August 2008 (one day after the Independence Day of India), the gay community in Mumbai
held its first ever formal pride parade (although informal pride parades had been held many times earlier), to demand that India's anti-gay laws be amended. A high court in the Indian capital, Delhi ruled on 2 July 2009, that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults was not a criminal act.
Pride parades have also been held in smaller Indian cities such as Bhubaneshwar and Thrissur (Kerala). Attendance at the pride parades has been increasing significantly since 2008, with an estimated participation of 3,500 people in Delhi and 1,500 people in Bangalore in 2010.
and Jerusalem. The Jerusalem parades are met with resistance due to the high presence of religious bodies in the city. Three Pride parades took place in Tel Aviv on the week of 11 June 2010. The main parade, which is also partly funded by the city's municipality, was one of the largest ever to take place in Israel, with approximately 100,000 participants. The first Pride parade in Tel Aviv took place in 1993.
On 30 June 2005, the fourth annual Pride march of Jerusalem took place. It had originally been prohibited by a municipal ban which was cancelled by the court. Many of the religious leaders of Jerusalem's Muslim
, Jewish and Christian
communities had arrived to a rare consensus asking the municipal government to cancel the permit of the paraders. During the parade, a Haredi
Jewish man attacked three people with a kitchen knife.
Another parade, this time billed as an international event, was scheduled to take place in the summer of 2005, but was postponed to 2006 due to the stress on police forces during in the summer of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan
. In 2006, it was again postponed due to the Israel-Hezbollah war
. It was scheduled to take place in Jerusalem on 10 November 2006, and caused a wave of protests by Haredi Jews around central Israel. The Israel National Police had filed a petition to cancel the parade due to foreseen strong opposition. Later, an agreement was reached to convert the parade into an assembly inside the Hebrew University
stadium in Jerusalem. 21 June 2007, the Jerusalem Open House
organization succeeded in staging a parade in central Jerusalem after police allocated thousands of personnel to secure the general area. The rally planned afterwards was cancelled due to an unrelated national fire brigade strike which prevented proper permits from being issued.
In 1995 MCC, ProGay Philippines and other organizations held internal celebrations. In 1996, 1997 and 1998 large and significant marches were organized and produced by Reachout AIDS Foundation, all of which were held in Malate, Manila, Philippines. In 1998, the year of the centennial commemoration of the Republic of the Philippines, a Gay and Lesbian Pride March was incorporated in the mammoth "citizens' parade" which was part of the official centennial celebration. That parade culminated in "marching by" the President of the Philippines, His Excellency Joseph Estrada, at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta Park in Manila.
In 1999, Task Force Pride Philippines (TFP), a network of LGBT and LGBT-friendly groups and individuals seeking to promote positive visibility for the LGBT community was born. Since then TFP has been organizing the annual Metro Manila Pride March. In 2003, decided to move the Pride March from June to the December Human Rights Week to coincide with related human rights activities such as World AIDS Day (December 1), Philippine National Lesbian Day (December 8), and International Human Rights Day (December 10).
On 10 December 2005, the First LGBT Freedom March, with the theme "CPR: Celebrating Pride and Rights" was held along the streets of España and Quiapo in Manila, Philippines. Concerned that the prevailing economic and political crisis in the country at the time presented threats to freedoms and liberties of all Filipinos, including sexual and gender minorities, LGBT individuals and groups, non-government organizations and members of various communities and sectors organized the LGBT Freedom March calling for systemic and structural change. At historic Plaza Miranda, in front of Quiapo Church, despite the pouring rain, a program with performances and speeches depicting LGBT pride was held soon after the march.
On 1 November 2003 the first LGBT pride parade in Taiwan
, Taiwan Pride
, was held in Taipei with over 1,000 people attending, and the mayor of Taipei, later president, Ma Ying-jeou
. Homosexuality remains taboo
in Taiwan, and many participants wore masks to hide their identities. The most recent parade, held in September 2008, attracted between approximately 18,000 participants, making it one of the largest gay pride events in Asia, second only to Tel Aviv
gay parade.
After 2008, the number grows rapidly. In 2009 25,000 people participated in the gay parade under the topic "Love out loud". And in 2010, despite bad weather conditions, the Taiwan gay parade "Out and Vote" attracted more than 30,000 people, making it the largest such event in Asia.
The very first Eastern Europe
an Pride, called The Internationale Pride, was assumed to be a promotion of the human right to freedom of assembly in Croatia
and other Eastern European states, where such rights of the LGBT population are not respected, and a support for organising the very first Prides in that communities. Out of all ex-Yugoslav
states, at that time only Slovenia
and Croatia
had a tradition of organising Pride events, whereas the attempt to organize such an event in Belgrade
, Serbia
in 2001, ended in a bloody showdown between the police and the counter-protesters, with the participants heavily beaten up. This manifestation was held in Zagreb
, Croatia
from 22–25 June 2006 and brought together representatives of those Eastern European and Southeastern European
countries where the sociopolitical climate is not ripe for the organization of Prides, or where such a manifestation is expressly forbidden by the authorities. From 13 countries that participated, only Poland
, Slovenia
, Croatia
, Romania
and Latvia
have been organizing Prides. Slovakia
also hosted the pride, but encountered many problems with Slovak extremists from Slovenska pospolitost (the pride did not cross the centre of the city). Bosnia and Herzegovina
, Republic of Macedonia
, Albania
and Lithuania
have never had Prides before. There were also representatives from Kosovo
, that participated apart from Serbia. It was the very first Pride organized jointly with other states and nations, which only ten years ago have been at war with each other. Weak cultural, political and social cooperation exists among these states, with an obvious lack of public encouragement for solidarity, which organizers hoped to initiate through that regional Pride event. The host and the initiator of The Internationale LGBT Pride was Zagreb Pride
, which has been held since 2002.
. Although homosexuality
was decriminalized back in 1968 people with different sexual orientations and identities are still not well accepted in society. In 2003 the country enacted several laws protecting the LGBT
community and individuals from discrimination. In 2008, Bulgaria organized its first ever pride parade. The almost 200 people who had gathered were attacked by skinhead
s, but police managed to prevent any injuries. The 2009 pride parade, with the motto "Rainbow Friendship" attracted more than 300 participants from Bulgaria
and tourists from Greece
and Great Britain. There were no disruptions and the parade continued as planned. A third Pride parade took place successfully in 2010, with close to 800 participants and an outdoor concert event.
in: Angers
, Biarritz
, Bayonne
,Bordeaux, Caen
, Le Mans
, Lille
, Lyon
, Marseille
, Montpellier
, Nancy, Nantes
, Paris
, Rennes
, Rouen
, Strassbourg, Toulouse
and Tours
.
, endeavours were made during the 1980s and 1990s to organise such an event, but it was not until 2005 that Athens Pride established itself. The Athens Pride is held every June in the center of Athens
city.
n gay pride march took place in Riga
, surrounded by protesters. It had previously been banned by the city council, and the Prime Minister of Latvia
, Aigars Kalvītis
, opposed the event, stating Riga should "not promote things like that", however a court decision allowed the march to go ahead. In 2006, LGBT people in Latvia attempted a Parade but were assaulted by "No Pride" protesters, an incident sparking a storm of international media pressure and protests from the European Parliament at the failure of the Latvian authorities to adequately protect the Parade so that it could proceed.
In 2007, following international pressure, a Pride Parade was held once again in Riga with 4,500 people parading around Vermanes Park, protected physically from "No Pride" protesters by 1,500 Latvian police, ringing the inside and the outside of the iron railings of the park. Two fire crackers were exploded with one being thrown from outside at the end of the festival as participants were moving off to the buses. This caused some alarm but no injury but participants did have to run the gauntlet of "No Pride" abuse as they ran to the buses. They were driven to a railway station on the outskirts of Riga, from where they went to a post Pride "relax" at the seaside resort of Jurmala. Participants included MEPs, Amnesty International observers and random individuals who travelled from abroad to support LGBT Latvians and their friends and families.
In 2008, Riga Pride was held in the historically potent 11 November Krestmalu (Square) beneath the presidential castle. The participants heard speeches from MEPs and a message of support from the Latvian President. The square was not open and was isolated from the public with some participants having trouble getting past police cordons. About 300 No Pride protesters gathered on the bridges behind barricades erected by the police who kept Pride participants and the "No Pride" protesters separated. Participants were once more "bused" out but this time a 5 minute journey to central Riga.
. About 300 foreign guests marched through the streets along several local supporters. Law was enforced with nearly a thousand policemen.
The Amsterdam
, in the Netherlands
, Gay Pride has been held since 1996 and can be seen as one of the most successful in acquiring social acceptance. The weekend-long event involves concerts, sports tournaments, street parties and most importantly the Canal Pride, a parade on boats on the canals of Amsterdam. In 2008 three government ministers joined on their own boat, representing the whole cabinet. Mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen
also joined. About 500,000 visitors were reported. 2008 was also the first year large Dutch international corporations ING Group
and TNT NV sponsored the event.
was forbidden by local authorities (including then-Mayor Lech Kaczyński
) but occurred nevertheless. The ban was later declared a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (Bączkowski and Others v. Poland
). In 2008, more than 1,800 people joined the march.
In 2010 EuroPride took place in Warsaw with approximately 8,000 participants.
in every July
since 2001. Also in Oporto, a march named Marcha do Orgulho do Porto, is held, since 2006. Lisbon
, the capital
of the country, performs a march Marcha do Orgulho and, since 1997, the oldest big LGBT event, the Arrail Pride.
, due to opposition from politicians, religious leaders and right-wing organisations. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has described the proposed Moscow Pride
as the "work of Satan". Attempted parades have led to clashes between protesters and counter-protesters, with the police acting to keep the two apart and disperse participants. In 2007 British activist Peter Tatchell
was physically assaulted. This was not the case in the high profile attempted march in May 2009, during the Eurovision singing contest. In this instance the police played an active role in arresting pride marchers. The European Court of Human Rights
has ruled that Russia has until January 20, 2010 to respond to cases of pride parades being banned in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
. When the participants started to gather in one of the city's principal squares, a huge crowd of opponents attacked the event, injuring several participants and stopping the march. The police were not equipped to suppress riots or protect the Pride marchers. Some of the victims of the attack took refuge in a student cultural centre, where a discussion was to follow the Pride march. Opponents surrounded the building and stopped the forum from happening. There were further clashes between police and opponents of the Pride march, and several police officers were injured.
Non-governmental organization
s and a number of public personalities criticised the assailants, the government and security officials. Government officials did not particularly comment on the event, nor were there any consequences for the approximately 30 young men arrested in the riots. Serbia remains a hostile environment for the LGBTQ population, and all attempts to organize subsequent Pride marches have failed.
On 21 July 2009, a group of human rights activists announced their plans to organize second Belgrade Pride on 20 September 2009. However, due to the heavy public threats of violence made by extreme right organisations, Ministry of Internal Affairs in the morning of September 19 moved the location of the march from the city centre to a space near the Palace of Serbia
therefore effectively banning the original 2009 Belgrade Pride.
Belgrade Pride parade was held on October 10, 2010 with about 1000 participants and while the parade itself went smoothly, police clashed with six thousand anti-gay protesters at Serbia's second ever Gay Pride march, with nearly 147 policemen and around 20 civilians reported wounded in the violence.
who joined both the 2009 and 2010 parade. Some individual attacks on activists have occurred.
(Madrid GLTB Collective) and FELGTB (Spanish Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals) and supported by other national and international LGTB groups. The first Gay Parade in Madrid was held after the death of Franco
, with the arrival of democracy, in 1979. Since then, dozens of companies like Microsoft
, Google
and Schweppes and several political parties and trade union
s, including Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
, United Left
, Union, Progress and Democracy
, CCOO and UGT
have been supporting the parade. Madrid Pride Parade is actually the biggest gay demonstration in Europe, with more than 1.5 million attendees in 2009 according to the Spanish government
.
In 2007, Europride
, the European Pride Parade, took place in Madrid
. About 2.5 million people attended more than 300 events over a week in the Spanish capital to celebrate Spain as the country with the most developed LGBT rights in the world. Independent media estimated that more than 200,000 visitors came from foreign countries to join in the festivities. Madrid gay district Chueca
, the biggest gay district in Europe, was the centre of the celebrations. The event was supported by the city, regional and national government and private sector which also ensured that the event was financially successful. Barcelona
, Valencia and Seville
hold also local Pride Parades. In 2008 Barcelona
hosted the Eurogames
.
Turkey is the first Muslim majority country in which gay pride march is held. In Istanbul
(since 2003) and in Ankara
(since 2008) gay marches are being held each year with a small but increasing participation. Gay pride march in Istanbul started with 30 people in 2003 and in 2010 the participation became 5,000. The Istanbul pride
of 2011 is considered as the biggest until now, with more than 10.000 participants. Politicians of the biggest opposition parties, CHP
and BDP
also lent their support to the demonstration. The pride march in Istanbul does not receive any support of the municipality or the government.
In recent decades Toronto has emerged as a leader on progressive gay and lesbian policy in North America. Its activists scored a major victory in 2003 when the Ontario Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling which made same-sex marriage legal in Ontario, the first jurisdiction in North America to do so. By this time the Toronto Pride Week Festival had been running for twenty-three years, making it one of the world's longest running organized Pride celebrations. It is also one of the largest, attracting around 1.3 million people in 2009. Toronto will host WorldPride
in 2014.
, Atlanta Pride
, Augusta Pride
, Capital Pride, Circle City IN Pride, Nashville Pride
, Houston Gay Pride Parade
, San Francisco Pride
, and Utah Pride Festival
, among many others.
, since 1997. In the year of 2006, it was named the biggest pride parade of the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. In 2010, the city hall of São Paulo invested R$ 1 million in the parade.
The Pride Parade is heavily supported by the federal government as well as by the Governor of São Paulo, the event counts with a solid security plan, many politicians show up to open the main event and the government not rarely parades with a float with politicians on top of it. In the Pride the city usually receives about 400,000 tourists and moves between R$ 180 million and R$ 190 million.
The Pride and its associated events are organized by the Associação da Parada do Orgulho de Gays, Lesbicas, Bissexuais e Travestis e Transexuais, since its foundation in 1999. The march is the event's main activity and the one that draws the biggest attention to the press, the Brazilian authorities as well as to the hundreds of thousands of curious people that line themselves along the parade's route. In 2009, 3.2 million people attended the 13th annual Gay Pride Parade.
The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras is the largest Australia
n pride event and one of the largest in the world. The celebrations emerged during the early 1980s after arrests were made during pro-gay rights protest
s that began in 1978. The parade is held at night with nearly 10,000 participants on and around elaborate floats representing topical themes as well as political messages.
There is opposition to pride events both within LGBT and mainstream populations. Critics charge the parades with an undue emphasis on sex and fetish-related interests which they see as counter-productive to LGBT interests, and exposing the "gay community" to ridicule. LGBT activists counter that traditional media have played a role in emphasizing the most outlandish and therefore non-representative aspects of the community. This in turn has prompted participants to engage in more flamboyant costumes to gain media coverage. Parody newspaper The Onion
satirized this perceived result of gay pride marches in a fake news piece in 2001.
Social conservatives are sometimes opposed to such events because they view them to be contrary to public morality. This belief is partly based on certain things often found in the parades, such as public nudity, BDSM
paraphernalia, and other sexualized features.
Mayor Rob Ford
has said that he will not allow city funding for the 2011 Toronto Pride Parade if organizers allow the controversial anti-Israel group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) march again this year. “Taxpayers dollars should not go toward funding hate speech,” Ford said. In April 2011, QuAIA has announced that it will not participate in the Toronto Pride Parade.
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, bisexual and transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
(LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
) culture. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
. Most pride events occur annually and many take place around June to commemorate the Stonewall riots
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City...
, a pivotal moment in the modern LGBT rights movement.
History
Stonewall Inn
The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall is an American bar in New York City and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which are widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for gay and lesbian rights in the United...
in the Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
neighborhood of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar
Gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender clientele; the term gay is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT and queer communities...
which catered to an assortment of patrons, but which was popular with the most marginalized people in the gay community: transvestites, transgender people, effeminate young men, hustlers, and homeless youth. The Stonewall riots
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City...
are generally considered to be the beginning of the modern gay rights movement, as it was the first time in modern history that a significant body of LGBT people resisted arrest.
First Pride march
On November 2, 1969, Craig RodwellCraig Rodwell
Craig L. Rodwell was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop on November 24, 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors and as the prime mover for the creation of the New York City pride demonstration...
proposed the first gay pride parade to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting in Philadelphia, along with his partner, Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes.
"That the Annual Reminder, in order to be more relevant, reach a greater number of people, and encompass the ideas and ideals of the larger struggle in which we are engaged-that of our fundamental human rights-be moved both in time and location.
We propose that a demonstration be held annually on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street and this demonstration be called CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY. No dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration.
We also propose that we contact Homophile organizations throughout the country and suggest that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day. We propose a nationwide show of support.
All attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for Mattachine Society
Mattachine Society
The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was one of the earliest homophile organizations in the United States, probably second only to Chicago’s Society for Human Rights . Harry Hay and a group of Los Angeles male friends formed the group to protect and improve the rights of homosexuals...
of New York, which abstained. Members of the Gay Liberation Front
Gay Liberation Front
Gay Liberation Front was the name of a number of Gay Liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots, in which police clashed with gay demonstrators.-The Gay Liberation Front:...
(GLF) attended the meeting and were seated as guests of Rodwell's group, Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN).
Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell's apartment in 350 Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street is a street in New York City's Manhattan borough. It is perhaps most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street is a spine that connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was once a major center for American bohemia.Bleecker...
. At first there was difficulty getting some of the major New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
organizations like Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) to send representatives. Rodwell and his partner Sargeant, Broidy, Michael Brown
Michael Brown (UK politician)
Michael Russell Brown is a British former Conservative Party politician and is now a newspaper and broadcast political journalist. He was a Member of Parliament from 1979 to 1997.-Biography:...
, Marty Nixon, and Foster Gunnison of Mattachine made up the core group of the CSLD Umbrella Committee (CSLDUC). For initial funding, Gunnison served as treasurer and sought donations from the national homophile organizations and sponsors, while Sargeant solicited donations via the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer for that organization. Other mainstays of the organizing committee were Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and Brenda Howard
Brenda Howard
Brenda Howard was an American bisexual rights activist and sex-positive feminist. Howard was an important figure in the modern LGBT rights movement.- Biography :...
of GLF. Believing that more people would turn out for the march on a Sunday, and so as to mark the date of the start of the Stonewall uprising, the CSLDUC scheduled the date for the first march for Sunday, June 28, 1970. With Dick Leitsch's replacement as president of Mattachine NY by "Michael Kotis" in April, 1970, opposition to the march by Mattachine ended.
On the same weekend gay activist groups on the West Coast of the United States held a march in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and a march and 'Gay-in' in San Francisco.
One day earlier, on Saturday, 27 June 1970, Chicago Gay Liberation organized a march from Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park, Chicago
Washington Square, also known as Washington Square Park, is a park in Chicago, Illinois. A registered historic landmark that is better known by its nickname Bughouse Square , it was the most celebrated open air free-speech center in the country as well as a popular Chicago tourist attraction...
("Bughouse Square") to the Water Tower
Chicago Water Tower
The Chicago Water Tower is a contributing property in the Old Chicago Water Tower District landmark district. It is located at 806 North Michigan Avenue along the Magnificent Mile shopping district in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois...
at the intersection of Michigan
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
and Chicago avenues, which was the route originally planned, and then many of the participants extemporaneously marched on to the Civic Center (now Richard J. Daley) Plaza. The date was chosen because the Stonewall events began on the last Saturday of June and because organizers wanted to reach the maximum number of Michigan Avenue shoppers. Subsequent Chicago parades have been held on the last Sunday of June, coinciding with the date of many similar parades elsewhere.
The first marches were both serious and fun, and served to inspire the widening activist movement; they were repeated in the following years, and more and more annual marches started up in other cities throughout the world. In New York and Atlanta the marches were called Gay Liberation Marches, and the day of celebration was called "Gay Liberation Day"; in San Francisco and Los Angeles they became known as 'Gay Freedom Marches' and the day was called "Gay Freedom Day". As more towns and cities began holding their own celebrations, these names spread.
In the 1980s there was a cultural shift in the gay movement. Activists of a less radical nature began taking over the march committees in different cities, and they dropped "Gay Liberation" and "Gay Freedom" from the names, replacing them with "Gay Pride
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
".
Description
Mardi Gras
The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...
-like character. Large parades often involve floats, dancers, drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
s, and amplified music; but even such celebratory parades usually include political and educational contingents, such as local politicians and marching groups from LGBT institutions of various kinds. Other typical parade participants include local LGBT-friendly churches such as Metropolitan Community Church
Metropolitan Community Church
The Metropolitan Community Church or The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches is an international Protestant Christian denomination...
es, United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
, and Unitarian Universalist
Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...
Churches, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and LGBT employee associations from large businesses.
Even the most festive parades usually offer some aspect dedicated to remembering victims of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
and anti-LGBT violence. Some particularly important pride parades are funded by governments and corporate sponsors, and promoted as major tourist attractions for the cities that host them. In some countries, some pride parades are now also called Pride Festivals. Some of these festivals provide a carnival-like atmosphere in a nearby park or city-provided closed-off street, with information booths, music concerts, barbecues, beer stands, contests, sports, and games.
Though the reality was that the Stonewall riots themselves, as well as the immediate and the ongoing political organizing that occurred following them, were events fully participated in by lesbian women, bisexual people and transgender people as well as by gay men of all races and backgrounds, historically these events were first named Gay, the word at that time being used in a more generic sense to cover the entire spectrum of what is now variously called the 'queer' or LGBT community.
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, as many of the actual participants had grown older, moved on to other issues or died, this led to misunderstandings as to who had actually participated in the Stonewall riots, who had actually organized the subsequent demonstrations, marches and memorials, and who had been members of early activist organizations such as Gay Liberation Front
Gay Liberation Front
Gay Liberation Front was the name of a number of Gay Liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots, in which police clashed with gay demonstrators.-The Gay Liberation Front:...
and Gay Activists Alliance. The language has become more accurate and inclusive, though these changes met with initial resistance from some in their own communities who were unaware of the historical events. Changing first to Lesbian and Gay, today most are called Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) or simply "Pride".
South Africa
South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
is home to the only gay pride marches on the African continent. Joburg Pride is held in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
usually the 1st Saturday in October annually. The inaugural Joburg Pride parade was held in 1990 with fewer than one thousand participants and it has grown considerably throughout the years, with over 20,000 participants in 2009. There is also a gay pride march annually (usually in February) in Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
. Soweto Pride takes place in Meadowlands
Meadowlands, Gauteng
Meadowlands is a suburb of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa....
, Soweto
Soweto
Soweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...
every year one week before Joburg Pride, and East Rand Pride a week before that in KwaThema, Gauteng
KwaThema, Gauteng
KwaThema is a township south-west of Springs on the East Rand, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1951 when Africans were resettled from Payneville because it was considered by the apartheid government to be too close to a white town...
, a township on Johannesburg's East Rand. Soweto Pride began in 2008 and East Rand Pride in 2009.
India
On 29 June 2008, four IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n cities (Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, Pondicherry and Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
) saw coordinated pride events. A rainbow parade was held at Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
the next day. About 2,200 people turned up overall. These were also the first pride events of all these cities except Kolkata, which had seen its first such event in 1999. The pride parades were successful, given that no right-wing group attacked or protested against the pride parade, although the opposition party BJP expressed its disagreement with the concept of gay pride parade. The next day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for greater social tolerance towards homosexuals at an AIDS event. On 16 August 2008 (one day after the Independence Day of India), the gay community in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
held its first ever formal pride parade (although informal pride parades had been held many times earlier), to demand that India's anti-gay laws be amended. A high court in the Indian capital, Delhi ruled on 2 July 2009, that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults was not a criminal act.
Pride parades have also been held in smaller Indian cities such as Bhubaneshwar and Thrissur (Kerala). Attendance at the pride parades has been increasing significantly since 2008, with an estimated participation of 3,500 people in Delhi and 1,500 people in Bangalore in 2010.
Israel
There are Pride events in both Tel AvivTel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
and Jerusalem. The Jerusalem parades are met with resistance due to the high presence of religious bodies in the city. Three Pride parades took place in Tel Aviv on the week of 11 June 2010. The main parade, which is also partly funded by the city's municipality, was one of the largest ever to take place in Israel, with approximately 100,000 participants. The first Pride parade in Tel Aviv took place in 1993.
On 30 June 2005, the fourth annual Pride march of Jerusalem took place. It had originally been prohibited by a municipal ban which was cancelled by the court. Many of the religious leaders of Jerusalem's Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
, Jewish and Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
communities had arrived to a rare consensus asking the municipal government to cancel the permit of the paraders. During the parade, a Haredi
Haredi Judaism
Haredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism is the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism, often referred to as ultra-Orthodox. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi ....
Jewish man attacked three people with a kitchen knife.
Another parade, this time billed as an international event, was scheduled to take place in the summer of 2005, but was postponed to 2006 due to the stress on police forces during in the summer of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut", was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from...
. In 2006, it was again postponed due to the Israel-Hezbollah war
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War #Other uses|Tammūz]]) and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War , was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. The principal parties were Hezbollah...
. It was scheduled to take place in Jerusalem on 10 November 2006, and caused a wave of protests by Haredi Jews around central Israel. The Israel National Police had filed a petition to cancel the parade due to foreseen strong opposition. Later, an agreement was reached to convert the parade into an assembly inside the Hebrew University
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
stadium in Jerusalem. 21 June 2007, the Jerusalem Open House
Jerusalem Open House
The Jerusalem Open House Pride and Tolerance is a grassroots, activist organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people and their allies...
organization succeeded in staging a parade in central Jerusalem after police allocated thousands of personnel to secure the general area. The rally planned afterwards was cancelled due to an unrelated national fire brigade strike which prevented proper permits from being issued.
Philippines
On 26 June 1994, on the 25th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines (ProGay Philippines) and Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) Manila organized the First LGBT Pride March in Asia, marching from EDSA to Quezon Avenue (Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines) and highlighting broad social issues. At Quezon City Memorial Circle, a program was held with a Queer Pride Mass and solidarity remarks from various organizations and individuals.In 1995 MCC, ProGay Philippines and other organizations held internal celebrations. In 1996, 1997 and 1998 large and significant marches were organized and produced by Reachout AIDS Foundation, all of which were held in Malate, Manila, Philippines. In 1998, the year of the centennial commemoration of the Republic of the Philippines, a Gay and Lesbian Pride March was incorporated in the mammoth "citizens' parade" which was part of the official centennial celebration. That parade culminated in "marching by" the President of the Philippines, His Excellency Joseph Estrada, at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta Park in Manila.
In 1999, Task Force Pride Philippines (TFP), a network of LGBT and LGBT-friendly groups and individuals seeking to promote positive visibility for the LGBT community was born. Since then TFP has been organizing the annual Metro Manila Pride March. In 2003, decided to move the Pride March from June to the December Human Rights Week to coincide with related human rights activities such as World AIDS Day (December 1), Philippine National Lesbian Day (December 8), and International Human Rights Day (December 10).
On 10 December 2005, the First LGBT Freedom March, with the theme "CPR: Celebrating Pride and Rights" was held along the streets of España and Quiapo in Manila, Philippines. Concerned that the prevailing economic and political crisis in the country at the time presented threats to freedoms and liberties of all Filipinos, including sexual and gender minorities, LGBT individuals and groups, non-government organizations and members of various communities and sectors organized the LGBT Freedom March calling for systemic and structural change. At historic Plaza Miranda, in front of Quiapo Church, despite the pouring rain, a program with performances and speeches depicting LGBT pride was held soon after the march.
Taiwan
On 1 November 2003 the first LGBT pride parade in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Taiwan Pride
Taiwan Pride
Taiwan Pride is the annual gay pride parade in Taiwan. The parade was first held in 2003. Although joined by groups from all over the country, the primary location has always been the city of Taipei...
, was held in Taipei with over 1,000 people attending, and the mayor of Taipei, later president, Ma Ying-jeou
Ma Ying-jeou
Ma Ying-jeou is the 12th term and current President of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan, and the Chairman of the Kuomintang Party, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party. He formerly served as Justice Minister from 1993 to 1996, Mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006, and Chairman...
. Homosexuality remains taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
in Taiwan, and many participants wore masks to hide their identities. The most recent parade, held in September 2008, attracted between approximately 18,000 participants, making it one of the largest gay pride events in Asia, second only to Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
gay parade.
After 2008, the number grows rapidly. In 2009 25,000 people participated in the gay parade under the topic "Love out loud". And in 2010, despite bad weather conditions, the Taiwan gay parade "Out and Vote" attracted more than 30,000 people, making it the largest such event in Asia.
Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an Pride, called The Internationale Pride, was assumed to be a promotion of the human right to freedom of assembly in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
and other Eastern European states, where such rights of the LGBT population are not respected, and a support for organising the very first Prides in that communities. Out of all ex-Yugoslav
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
states, at that time only Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
and Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
had a tradition of organising Pride events, whereas the attempt to organize such an event in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
in 2001, ended in a bloody showdown between the police and the counter-protesters, with the participants heavily beaten up. This manifestation was held in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
from 22–25 June 2006 and brought together representatives of those Eastern European and Southeastern European
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
countries where the sociopolitical climate is not ripe for the organization of Prides, or where such a manifestation is expressly forbidden by the authorities. From 13 countries that participated, only Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
have been organizing Prides. Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
also hosted the pride, but encountered many problems with Slovak extremists from Slovenska pospolitost (the pride did not cross the centre of the city). Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
and Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
have never had Prides before. There were also representatives from Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, that participated apart from Serbia. It was the very first Pride organized jointly with other states and nations, which only ten years ago have been at war with each other. Weak cultural, political and social cooperation exists among these states, with an obvious lack of public encouragement for solidarity, which organizers hoped to initiate through that regional Pride event. The host and the initiator of The Internationale LGBT Pride was Zagreb Pride
Zagreb Pride
Zagreb Pride is the annual pride march and LGBTIQ demonstration of Zagreb, Croatia, which first took place in 2002 and now occurs in June of each year, lasting for a few days. Zagreb Pride is the first successful pride march held in the Balkans, just a year after a bloody showdown at 2001 ...
, which has been held since 2002.
Bulgaria
Like the other countries from the Balkans, Bulgaria's population is very conservative when it comes to issues like sexualitySexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
. Although homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
was decriminalized back in 1968 people with different sexual orientations and identities are still not well accepted in society. In 2003 the country enacted several laws protecting the LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
community and individuals from discrimination. In 2008, Bulgaria organized its first ever pride parade. The almost 200 people who had gathered were attacked by skinhead
Skinhead
A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and then spread to other parts of the world. Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian rude boys and British mods,...
s, but police managed to prevent any injuries. The 2009 pride parade, with the motto "Rainbow Friendship" attracted more than 300 participants from Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and tourists from Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and Great Britain. There were no disruptions and the parade continued as planned. A third Pride parade took place successfully in 2010, with close to 800 participants and an outdoor concert event.
France
Paris hosts annual Gay Pride Parades on June 27th, with attendances of over half a million. Sixteen other parades take place at cities throughout FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in: Angers
Angers
Angers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....
, Biarritz
Biarritz
Biarritz is a city which lies on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast, in south-western France. It is a luxurious seaside town and is popular with tourists and surfers....
, Bayonne
Bayonne
Bayonne is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture...
,Bordeaux, Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
, Le Mans
Le Mans
Le Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...
, Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
, Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
, Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
, Nancy, Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Rennes
Rennes
Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...
, Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, Strassbourg, Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
and Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
.
Greece
In GreeceGreece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, endeavours were made during the 1980s and 1990s to organise such an event, but it was not until 2005 that Athens Pride established itself. The Athens Pride is held every June in the center of Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
city.
Latvia
On 22 July 2005, the first LatviaLatvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
n gay pride march took place in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, surrounded by protesters. It had previously been banned by the city council, and the Prime Minister of Latvia
Prime Minister of Latvia
The Prime Minister of Latvia is the most powerful member of the Government of the Republic of Latvia, and presides over the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers...
, Aigars Kalvītis
Aigars Kalvitis
Aigars Kalvītis is a Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia and current Chairman of the Board of Latvijas Balzams....
, opposed the event, stating Riga should "not promote things like that", however a court decision allowed the march to go ahead. In 2006, LGBT people in Latvia attempted a Parade but were assaulted by "No Pride" protesters, an incident sparking a storm of international media pressure and protests from the European Parliament at the failure of the Latvian authorities to adequately protect the Parade so that it could proceed.
In 2007, following international pressure, a Pride Parade was held once again in Riga with 4,500 people parading around Vermanes Park, protected physically from "No Pride" protesters by 1,500 Latvian police, ringing the inside and the outside of the iron railings of the park. Two fire crackers were exploded with one being thrown from outside at the end of the festival as participants were moving off to the buses. This caused some alarm but no injury but participants did have to run the gauntlet of "No Pride" abuse as they ran to the buses. They were driven to a railway station on the outskirts of Riga, from where they went to a post Pride "relax" at the seaside resort of Jurmala. Participants included MEPs, Amnesty International observers and random individuals who travelled from abroad to support LGBT Latvians and their friends and families.
In 2008, Riga Pride was held in the historically potent 11 November Krestmalu (Square) beneath the presidential castle. The participants heard speeches from MEPs and a message of support from the Latvian President. The square was not open and was isolated from the public with some participants having trouble getting past police cordons. About 300 No Pride protesters gathered on the bridges behind barricades erected by the police who kept Pride participants and the "No Pride" protesters separated. Participants were once more "bused" out but this time a 5 minute journey to central Riga.
Lithuania
In 2010 first pride parade was held in VilniusVilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
. About 300 foreign guests marched through the streets along several local supporters. Law was enforced with nearly a thousand policemen.
The Netherlands
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Gay Pride has been held since 1996 and can be seen as one of the most successful in acquiring social acceptance. The weekend-long event involves concerts, sports tournaments, street parties and most importantly the Canal Pride, a parade on boats on the canals of Amsterdam. In 2008 three government ministers joined on their own boat, representing the whole cabinet. Mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen
Job Cohen
Marius Job Cohen is a Dutch social democratic politician and former legal scholar of Jewish background. Since 2010 he has been the leader of the Labour Party and since June 17, 2010 he has been a member of the House of Representatives, where he also is the Parliamentary group leader of the Labour...
also joined. About 500,000 visitors were reported. 2008 was also the first year large Dutch international corporations ING Group
ING Group
The ING Group is a global financial institution offering retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, asset management, and insurance services. ING is the Dutch member of the Inter-Alpha Group of Banks, a cooperative consortium of 11 prominent European banks...
and TNT NV sponsored the event.
Poland
In 2005, a gay pride observance in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
was forbidden by local authorities (including then-Mayor Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
) but occurred nevertheless. The ban was later declared a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (Bączkowski and Others v. Poland
Baczkowski and Others v. Poland
Bączkowski and Others v Poland was a European Court of Human Rights case which ruled unanimously that the banning of an LGBT pride parade in Warsaw, locally known as the Parada Równości , in 2005 was in violation of Articles 11, 13 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights...
). In 2008, more than 1,800 people joined the march.
In 2010 EuroPride took place in Warsaw with approximately 8,000 participants.
Portugal
In Oporto, Portuguese LGBT community performs Porto PridePorto Pride
Porto Pride is the name of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community Pride Party held in Oporto in July of each year. The first Oporto LGBT Pride Party was in July 2001. Around 1000 people participated in the first edition and this number doubled in the 2008 edition. The Party is an...
in every July
July
July is the seventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with the length of 31 days. It is, on average, the warmest month in most of the Northern hemisphere and the coldest month in much of the Southern hemisphere...
since 2001. Also in Oporto, a march named Marcha do Orgulho do Porto, is held, since 2006. Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, the capital
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
of the country, performs a march Marcha do Orgulho and, since 1997, the oldest big LGBT event, the Arrail Pride.
Russia
Prides in Russia are generally banned by city authorities in St. Petersburg and MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, due to opposition from politicians, religious leaders and right-wing organisations. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has described the proposed Moscow Pride
Moscow Pride
Moscow Pride is a demonstration of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered persons . It was intended to take place in May annually since 2006 in the Russian capital Moscow, but has been regularly banned by Moscow City Hall, headed by Mayor Yuri Luzhkov until 2010...
as the "work of Satan". Attempted parades have led to clashes between protesters and counter-protesters, with the police acting to keep the two apart and disperse participants. In 2007 British activist Peter Tatchell
Peter Tatchell
Peter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements...
was physically assaulted. This was not the case in the high profile attempted march in May 2009, during the Eurovision singing contest. In this instance the police played an active role in arresting pride marchers. The European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
has ruled that Russia has until January 20, 2010 to respond to cases of pride parades being banned in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Serbia
On 30 June 2001, several Serbian LGBTQ groups attempted to hold the country's first Pride march, in BelgradeBelgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
. When the participants started to gather in one of the city's principal squares, a huge crowd of opponents attacked the event, injuring several participants and stopping the march. The police were not equipped to suppress riots or protect the Pride marchers. Some of the victims of the attack took refuge in a student cultural centre, where a discussion was to follow the Pride march. Opponents surrounded the building and stopped the forum from happening. There were further clashes between police and opponents of the Pride march, and several police officers were injured.
Non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
s and a number of public personalities criticised the assailants, the government and security officials. Government officials did not particularly comment on the event, nor were there any consequences for the approximately 30 young men arrested in the riots. Serbia remains a hostile environment for the LGBTQ population, and all attempts to organize subsequent Pride marches have failed.
On 21 July 2009, a group of human rights activists announced their plans to organize second Belgrade Pride on 20 September 2009. However, due to the heavy public threats of violence made by extreme right organisations, Ministry of Internal Affairs in the morning of September 19 moved the location of the march from the city centre to a space near the Palace of Serbia
Palace of Serbia
The Palace of Serbia is a governmental building located in Novi Beograd, Serbia.It was the former seat of the Federal Executive Council of Yugoslavia and was previously known as the Federation Palace and, informally, SIV 1 Federal Executive Council.Construction began in 1947...
therefore effectively banning the original 2009 Belgrade Pride.
Belgrade Pride parade was held on October 10, 2010 with about 1000 participants and while the parade itself went smoothly, police clashed with six thousand anti-gay protesters at Serbia's second ever Gay Pride march, with nearly 147 policemen and around 20 civilians reported wounded in the violence.
Slovenia
Although first LGBTQ festival in Slovenia dates in 1984, namely the Ljubljana Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the first pride parade was only organized in 2001 as a result of an incident in a Ljubljana cafe where a gay couple was asked to leave for being homosexual. Ljubljana pride is traditionally supported by the mayor of Ljubljana and left-wing politicians, most notably the Interior minister Katarina KresalKatarina Kresal
Katarina Kresal is a Slovenian politician. She is the current Minister of the Interior.Born in Ljubljana, Kresal studied law at the University of Ljubljana. She entered politics in 2007, when she was elected as a compromise candidate for the president of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia...
who joined both the 2009 and 2010 parade. Some individual attacks on activists have occurred.
Spain
Madrid Pride Parade, known as "Orgullo Gay", is held the first Saturday after June 28 since 1979. The event is organised by COGAMCOGAM
Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals Collective Organization is a Spanish non-governmental association stated as a public utility and non-profit organization in Boletín Oficial del Estado which works actively for the rights of lesbians, gays, transsexuals and bisexuals...
(Madrid GLTB Collective) and FELGTB (Spanish Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals) and supported by other national and international LGTB groups. The first Gay Parade in Madrid was held after the death of Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
, with the arrival of democracy, in 1979. Since then, dozens of companies like Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
and Schweppes and several political parties and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s, including Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...
, United Left
United Left (Spain)
The United Left is a political coalition that was organized in 1986 bringing together several political organisations opposed to Spain joining NATO. It was formed by a number of groups of leftists, greens, left-wing socialists and republicans, but was dominated by the Communist Party of Spain...
, Union, Progress and Democracy
Union, Progress and Democracy
Union, Progress and Democracy is a Spanish political party founded in September 2007.It is a progressivist party, between social democracy and social liberalism. One of its goals is to build a federal system for Spain and European Union, with clear responsibilities distributed among local...
, CCOO and UGT
Unión General de Trabajadores
The Unión General de Trabajadores is a major Spanish trade union, historically affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party .-History:...
have been supporting the parade. Madrid Pride Parade is actually the biggest gay demonstration in Europe, with more than 1.5 million attendees in 2009 according to the Spanish government
Spanish Government
Spain is a constitutional monarchy whose government is defined by the Constitution of Spain. This was approved by a general referendum of the people of Spain in 1978...
.
In 2007, Europride
Europride
Europride is a pan-European international event dedicated to LGBT pride, hosted by a different European city each year. The host city is usually one with an established gay pride event or a significant LGBT community....
, the European Pride Parade, took place in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. About 2.5 million people attended more than 300 events over a week in the Spanish capital to celebrate Spain as the country with the most developed LGBT rights in the world. Independent media estimated that more than 200,000 visitors came from foreign countries to join in the festivities. Madrid gay district Chueca
Chueca
Chueca is a central neighborhood in Madrid named after Federico Chueca , composer of zarzuelas. It lies just to the north of the old city and is centered around the Plaza de Chueca, with its metro station "Chueca." The neighborhood has become a popular area for Madrid's gay community, which stages...
, the biggest gay district in Europe, was the centre of the celebrations. The event was supported by the city, regional and national government and private sector which also ensured that the event was financially successful. Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Valencia and Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
hold also local Pride Parades. In 2008 Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
hosted the Eurogames
Eurogames (LGBT sporting event)
The EuroGames are a gay and lesbian sporting event in Europe, hosted by license of the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation and organised by one or more of the federation's member clubs....
.
Turkey
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
(since 2003) and in Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
(since 2008) gay marches are being held each year with a small but increasing participation. Gay pride march in Istanbul started with 30 people in 2003 and in 2010 the participation became 5,000. The Istanbul pride
Istanbul Pride
Gay Pride Istanbul is the annual gay pride march and LGBT demonstration which is held in the biggest city of Turkey, Istanbul. The first pride took place in 2003 and now occurs on the last Sunday of June of each year, as closure of the Istanbul pride week. The first Pride had around 30 participants...
of 2011 is considered as the biggest until now, with more than 10.000 participants. Politicians of the biggest opposition parties, CHP
Republican People's Party (Turkey)
The Republican People's Party is a centre-left Kemalist political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party of Turkey and is currently Main Opposition in the Grand National Assembly. The Republican People's Party describes itself as "a modern social-democratic party, which is faithful to...
and BDP
Peace and Democracy Party
The Peace and Democracy Party ) is a political party in the Republic of Turkey. It succeeded the Democratic Society Party following the closure of the latter party for its alleged connections with the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the EU.The BDP has observer status in the...
also lent their support to the demonstration. The pride march in Istanbul does not receive any support of the municipality or the government.
Canada
Toronto Leather Pride takes place the second weekend in August. During the weekend festivities Leather Ball, the Church Street Fetish Fair and the Mr. Leatherman Toronto and Bootblack Toronto Competitions are held. The weekend is sponsored by Heart of the Flag Federation Inc. , which is a not-for-profit club for sexual minorities in Toronto Leather/BDSM/Fetish and Kink Community. Open to all genders and orientations this event has become wildly popular.In recent decades Toronto has emerged as a leader on progressive gay and lesbian policy in North America. Its activists scored a major victory in 2003 when the Ontario Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling which made same-sex marriage legal in Ontario, the first jurisdiction in North America to do so. By this time the Toronto Pride Week Festival had been running for twenty-three years, making it one of the world's longest running organized Pride celebrations. It is also one of the largest, attracting around 1.3 million people in 2009. Toronto will host WorldPride
WorldPride
WorldPride, organised by InterPride, is an event that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues on an international level through parades, festivals and other cultural activities. Founded by Paul Stenson. From 2014, the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the event will be held...
in 2014.
United States
New York City's Gay Pride March began in 1970. The 2011 parade was held just two days after the legalization of gay marriage in the state of New York. Other pride parades include Chicago Pride ParadeChicago Pride Parade
The Chicago Pride Parade, also colloquially called the Chicago Gay Pride Parade or PRIDE Chicago, is the annual gay pride parade held on the last Sunday of June in Chicago, Illinois in the United States...
, Atlanta Pride
Atlanta Pride
Atlanta Pride, also colloquially called the Atlanta Gay Pride Festival, is a week-long annual lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender pride parade held in Atlanta, Georgia . Established in 1971, it is one of the oldest pride parades in the United States.. According to the Atlanta Pride Committee as...
, Augusta Pride
Augusta Pride
Augusta Pride is the annual LGBT pride parade in Augusta, Georgia . The event started in 2010.-See also:* Arts and culture in Augusta, Georgia* LGBT rights in Georgia Augusta Pride is the annual LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) pride parade in Augusta, Georgia (USA). The event started in...
, Capital Pride, Circle City IN Pride, Nashville Pride
Nashville Pride
Nashville Pride is a non-profit based in Nashville, Tennessee that produces a yearly LGBT Pride Festival. Nashville Pride's mission is to educate and maintain a sense of pride, community, and awareness of, about, and for GLBT people and culture in Middle Tennessee.- History :From the tapping of a...
, Houston Gay Pride Parade
Houston Gay Pride Parade
The Houston Gay Pride Parade is a Gay Pride festival held annually since 1979 in the Neartown area of Houston. The festival takes place in June to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people and their allies. The route of the parade is usually along Westheimer Road, from Dunlavy...
, San Francisco Pride
San Francisco Pride
The San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration, usually known as San Francisco Pride, is a parade and festival held in June each year in San Francisco to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies...
, and Utah Pride Festival
Utah Pride Festival
The Utah Pride Festival is a festival held in downtown Salt Lake City in June, celebrating Utah's diversity and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender populations. The event is a program of The Utah Pride Center. It includes the state’s second-largest parade...
, among many others.
Greenland
In 2011, Nuuk celebrated its first pride parade. Over 1,000 people attended and it was entirely peaceful.Brazil
São Paulo Gay Pride Parade happens in Paulista Avenue, in the city of São PauloSão Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, since 1997. In the year of 2006, it was named the biggest pride parade of the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. In 2010, the city hall of São Paulo invested R$ 1 million in the parade.
The Pride Parade is heavily supported by the federal government as well as by the Governor of São Paulo, the event counts with a solid security plan, many politicians show up to open the main event and the government not rarely parades with a float with politicians on top of it. In the Pride the city usually receives about 400,000 tourists and moves between R$ 180 million and R$ 190 million.
The Pride and its associated events are organized by the Associação da Parada do Orgulho de Gays, Lesbicas, Bissexuais e Travestis e Transexuais, since its foundation in 1999. The march is the event's main activity and the one that draws the biggest attention to the press, the Brazilian authorities as well as to the hundreds of thousands of curious people that line themselves along the parade's route. In 2009, 3.2 million people attended the 13th annual Gay Pride Parade.
Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n pride event and one of the largest in the world. The celebrations emerged during the early 1980s after arrests were made during pro-gay rights protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
s that began in 1978. The parade is held at night with nearly 10,000 participants on and around elaborate floats representing topical themes as well as political messages.
Opposition
The Onion
The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
satirized this perceived result of gay pride marches in a fake news piece in 2001.
Social conservatives are sometimes opposed to such events because they view them to be contrary to public morality. This belief is partly based on certain things often found in the parades, such as public nudity, BDSM
BDSM
BDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...
paraphernalia, and other sexualized features.
Controversy
In March, 2011, TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
Mayor Rob Ford
Rob Ford
Robert Bruce "Rob" Ford is the 64th and current Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was first elected to city council in the 2000 Toronto municipal election, and was re-elected to his council seat in 2003 and again in 2006...
has said that he will not allow city funding for the 2011 Toronto Pride Parade if organizers allow the controversial anti-Israel group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) march again this year. “Taxpayers dollars should not go toward funding hate speech,” Ford said. In April 2011, QuAIA has announced that it will not participate in the Toronto Pride Parade.
See also
- Atlanta PrideAtlanta PrideAtlanta Pride, also colloquially called the Atlanta Gay Pride Festival, is a week-long annual lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender pride parade held in Atlanta, Georgia . Established in 1971, it is one of the oldest pride parades in the United States.. According to the Atlanta Pride Committee as...
- Chicago Pride ParadeChicago Pride ParadeThe Chicago Pride Parade, also colloquially called the Chicago Gay Pride Parade or PRIDE Chicago, is the annual gay pride parade held on the last Sunday of June in Chicago, Illinois in the United States...
- Cologne Gay PrideCologne Gay PrideCologne Pride or Cologne Gay Pride is one of the largest gay and lesbian organized event in Germany and one of the biggest in Europe. Its origin is to celebrate the pride in Gay and Lesbian Culture....
- Craig RodwellCraig RodwellCraig L. Rodwell was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop on November 24, 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors and as the prime mover for the creation of the New York City pride demonstration...
- Dyke MarchDyke MarchDyke March is a mostly lesbian-led and inclusive gathering and protest march much like the original gay pride parades and marches. They usually occur the Friday or Saturday before LGBT pride parades and larger metropolitan areas have related events both before and after the event to further...
- Gay pride flag
- Gay Pride March (New York City)
- Gay USAGay USA (film)Gay USA is an American documentary released in 1978 and directed by Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. The documentary focuses on the gay rights movement...
- Houston Gay Pride ParadeHouston Gay Pride ParadeThe Houston Gay Pride Parade is a Gay Pride festival held annually since 1979 in the Neartown area of Houston. The festival takes place in June to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people and their allies. The route of the parade is usually along Westheimer Road, from Dunlavy...
- Lake ParadeLake ParadeThe Lake Parade is a large Technoparade which is organised every year from 1997, on month of July, in Geneva on the quay of Lake Geneva.-History:The Lake Parade has been one of the main Geneva events of the last ten years from when it was first organised...
- LGBT pride
- Marsha P. JohnsonMarsha P. JohnsonMarsha P. Johnson born in Elizabeth, New Jersey as Malcolm Michaels, Jr. was an African American transgender activist and a popular figure in New York City's gay and art scene from the 1960s to the 1990s....
- San Francisco PrideSan Francisco PrideThe San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration, usually known as San Francisco Pride, is a parade and festival held in June each year in San Francisco to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies...
- São Paulo Gay Pride Parade
- Sexuality and gender identity-based culturesSexuality and gender identity-based culturesSexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of persons who have shared experiences, background, or interests due to a common sexual or gender identity. Among the first to argue that members of sexual minorities can constitute cultural minorities as well as...
- Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi GrasSydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi GrasThe Sydney Mardi Gras is an annual LGBTQI pride parade and festival in Sydney, Australia, and draws in thousands of visitors from around Australia and overseas...
- Sylvia RiveraSylvia RiveraSylvia Rae Rivera was an American transgender activist. Rivera was a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance and helped found STAR , a group dedicated to helping homeless young street trans women, with her friend Marsha P...
External links
- 2011 San Francisco Pride parade photo gallery
- gayScout Worldwide Pride Events Calendar
- Photos from 2006–11 LA, SF ,Sydney, NYC, Toronto Pride
- Athens Pride The annual Greek LGBT pride parade in Athens
- Global Calendar of 2008 Pride Events
- San Francisco Pride Gallery 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005
- Pride Dictionary and Gay Flags
- International Gay Pride Guide
- Photos Gay Pride International
- Interpride The International Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Coordinators
- Amsterdam Gay Pride Parade photo gallery
- Brighton & Hove Pride photos
- Europride Parade London 2006 photo gallery
- Pride Toronto
- EuroPride London 2006 Parade & Rally photos
- UK Gay Pride calendar
- Belgian Lesbian and Gay Pride
- Reno Gay Pride
- Istanbul Gay Pride Parade
- Video: Stub at the gay pride parade, Jerusalem, Israel, 2005
- http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6099555,00.html
- Video from the 2005 Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade (Hebrew)
- Belfast Pride
- Romanian Lesbian and Gay Pride
- U.S. Latinos and Gay Pride
- “Walk with Pride” Photography Project Images from pride parades from around the world by recognized photographer Charles Meacham.
- Pride Parade Barcelona 2011