Millions turn out for Pride parades worldwide

By Gregg Drinkwater, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network

SUMMARY: Gay Pride parades and parties drew millions of people to the streets in cities throughout the world this weekend, as leather-clad men and women joined with drag queens in stilettos and suburban gay couples in shorts and sneakers to celebrate the GLBT community.

Gay Pride parades and parties drew millions of people to the streets in cities throughout the world this weekend, as leather-clad men and women joined with drag queens in stilettos and suburban gay couples in shorts and sneakers to celebrate the GLBT community.

Commemorating the Stonewall riots of 1969, an event in which patrons of a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village fought back against police harassment, the annual Pride celebrations are the biggest event on the gay calendar.

In some cities, such as Milan, Italy, parade participants marched without the support of local authorities. Referring to Milan's parade, Vice-Mayor Riccardo De Corato told the ANSA news agency that the city "did not share the sentiments of this rally," the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Elsewhere, such as Toronto, official support was downright enthusiastic. Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman celebrated his third Pride parade by firing water cannons into the 1-million-strong crowd from the top of a vintage firetruck, 365gay.com reported.

San Francisco

In San Francisco, Pride event organizers estimated that more than 1 million people turned out for Sunday's party, and pumped nearly $150 million into the Bay Area economy, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. San Francisco's parade, led by the 500-strong Women's Motorcycle Contingent -- aka Dykes on Bikes -- featured 182 floats and contingents, the largest number of parade participants to date.

The theme of San Francisco's 31st annual Pride celebration -- "Queerific" -- emphasized the efforts of the Pride organizing committee to create an inclusive event embracing not just lesbians and gays, but bisexuals, the transgendered and people questioning their sexual identity. The president of the Pride committee, Cecilia Chung, is the first Asian-American and the first transgender person to lead the organization.

Teddy Witherington, the Pride committee's executive director, told 365Gay.com that San Francisco "even had a gay mayor [Sunday]." Mayor Willie Brown was out of town, so openly-gay Supervisor Mark Leno was "mayor for the day." Leno was one of the parade's five grand marshals.

Paris

Police estimated that 500,000 people participated in the Pride celebration in Paris on Saturday -- the largest turnout ever.

Bertrand Delanoe, the city's recently elected gay mayor, was the first Paris mayor to participate in the Pride event. Marching with other politicians at the front of the parade, Delanoe carried a banner reading, "All together against discrimination."

"Any time there are Parisians fighting for more freedom Â… I'm with them," Delanoe told the AP. "This is the seventh year that I've gone to the Gay Pride parade -- it's not just because I've become Paris mayor that I feel I have to take part."

Berlin

With the rainbow flag flying from Berlin's city hall for the first time, a crowd estimated at 1 million by event organizers turned out for Saturday's parade.

Openly gay Klaus Wowereit, installed only one week ago as interim mayor of Berlin (following the ousting of the previous mayor in a no-confidence vote), told a cheering crowd that he would lead the city in the fight against intolerance.

"We won't give the extremists a finger's width," Wowereit said, the AP reported.

New York City

New York City's 32nd annual Pride parade included a group of veterans of the 1969 Stonewall riots and all six Democratic and Republican candidates for the city's upcoming mayoral election. Although they may differ in the details, there is broad agreement among the six on the main gay issues facing the city.

"There is not a single candidate who can be described as not good on our issues," Matt Foreman, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, told the New York Times. "In other parts of the country, the positions taken here would be extremely unpopular, if not deadly at the polls."

Thirty-six gay and lesbian couples held a mass commitment ceremony to kick off New York's parade. One of the couples, Sheneen Ellis and Alona Hartnett, were joined in the ceremony by their five children, according to the Times. One of the couple's children carried a sign that read, "Two mothers are better than having only one. I love mommy and mommy."