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Millions
Turn Out for Gay Pride Parade
Gregg
Drinkwater, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network
Monday, June 25, 2001 / 03:51 PM
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
... 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.
Tel
Aviv
The
GLBT community in Israel -- along with thousands
of visitors from throughout the Middle East and
the world -- opened the annual Pride parade on
Friday with speeches by politicians and activists,
including Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai who told the
crowd, "The freedom of all individuals ...
is an integral part of the city of Tel Aviv,"
the AP reported.
The celebratory mood, though, was challenged by
about 150 "people in black" -- Israeli
and Palestinian gays dressed in black -- who marched,
arms linked, to protest Israel's occupation of
the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the recent escalation
of violence.
Carrying a banner that read "There is no
pride in the oppression of others," participants
in the black-clad group felt the time was not
right for a celebration.
"Gay
Pride should not just be a carnival but a day
of solidarity," Dalit Baum told the AP correspondent.
The highlight of the post-parade festival was
an appearance by singer Dana International, the
transsexual Israeli superstar and winner of the
1998 Eurovision Song Contest for her hit "Viva
la Diva."
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."
LINKS
http://www.pflag.org/
- Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and
Gays
http://www.planetout.com/pno/
- Many Resources Pertaining to Gay/Lesbian Life
http://www.advocate.com/
- Prominent Gay and Lesbian Publication
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