Gay pride parade
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Image:2004-GayPrideBrazil-45409.jpeg A pride parade is part of a festival or ceremony held by the LGBT community of a city to commemorate the struggle for gay rights and gay pride.
The gay community of a city will typically present an annual parade, sometimes in the context of a longer celebration including performances, dances, street parties, and the like. Most gay pride parades take place in the summer, particularly in June, to commemorate the Stonewall riots.
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History
Template:Section-stub In June 1969, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and queer persons rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. 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.
On June 28, 1970, around the one-year anniversary of the riots, the Gay Liberation Front organized a march from Greenwich Village to Central Park in New York City in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots. The march was coordinated by Brenda Howard. A march was also held in San Francisco in 1970.
The marches were repeated in the following years, and over the years similar marches began to be held in other cities throughout the world. The marches became known as Gay Pride marches.
Image:SF Pride Drag Queens.jpg Many parades still have this political or activist character, especially in less gay-positive settings. However, in more gay-positive cities, the parades take on a festive or even Mardi Gras-like character. Large parades often involve floats, dancers, drag queens, and amplified music; but, even such celebratory parades usually include political and educational contingents, such as local politicians and marching groups from gay and queer institutions of various kinds. Other typical parade participants include local gay-friendly churches such as Metropolitan Community Churches and Unitarian Universalist Churches, PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and the gay employee associations from large businesses.
Even the most festive parades often offer some aspect dedicated to remembering victims of AIDS. 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.
Historically these events were named Gay but have evolved over the years. First to Lesbian and Gay then to today's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT). Some of these changes met with initial resistance in their own communities.
Image:Women Coalition of HKSAR on Taiwan Pride 2005.jpg The rainbow flag, sometimes called 'the freedom flag', was first used to symbolize gay pride and diversity by artist Gilbert Baker in 1978, at a gay pride parade in San Francisco in 1978, and is now commonly displayed in gay pride parades throughout the world. As of 2003, it consists of six colored stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. The different colors symbolize diversity in the gay community.
Opposition
A portion of homosexuals and non-homosexuals regard pride parades, especially those of a more festive character, as vulgar flaunting of sexual orientation, charging them with an undue emphasis on sex and bizarre behaviour, which they see as detrimental to the cause of gay rights. The argument's sometimes taken further, arguing that they expose the "gay community" to ridicule, depicting them as emasculated "half-men".
Others criticize this position, seeing it as pandering to homophobia, and arguing that heterosexuality takes centre stage the other 364 days of the year and that pride parades promote visibility and discussion of gay and lesbian issues. Most argue that such parades are carnivals and that they should be taken as such rather than as representative of everyday life for someone who happens to be gay.
Notable pride events
Belgrade
On June 30, 2001 several LGBTQ groups from Serbia attempted to march through Belgrade's streets and peacefully demand their rights and an end to oppression. The event was registered with the local police for safety reasons and according to the law, however, when the people started to gather in one of the city's principal squares, a huge crowd of soccer fans, clerics leading ultra nationalist youth, and skinheads stormed the event, attacked and seriously injured several participants and stopped the manifestation from taking place. The event was extremely tense as the police was not equipped to suppress riots or protect the Pride marchers. The conflict unravelled in the streets of Belgrade as the opposers of the event took to the streets triumphantly singing songs about killing gays and lesbians. Some of the victims of the attack took refuge in the building of the student cultural centre where a discussion was planned following the Pride event. The building was surrounded as well in attempt to stop the forum from happening, and it was successful. There were harder clashes between poorly equipped police and assilants in the area where several police officers were injured as well. The aftermath was characterized by sharp criticizm of the assilants and government and security officials from the NGO's and a number of public personalities. Government officials did not particularly comment on the event nor were there any consequences for some 30 young men arrested in the riots. Serbia remains a hostile environment for the LGBTQ population and all attempts to organize subsequent Pride marches failed. This was the first Pride march organized in this region.
Jerusalem
On June 30 2005, a parade took place in Jerusalem. It had originally been prohibited by a municipal ban, which was canceled by the court. During the parade, a young ultra-Orthodox Jewish man tried to murder 3 people with a kitchen knife.
Latvia
On July 22, 2005, the first Latvian 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 [1].
Taipei
Image:Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association on Taiwan Pride 2005.JPG On November 1, 2003 the first gay pride parade in the Chinese region was held in Taipei, with over 1,000 people attending [7], and the mayor of Taipei, Ma Ying-jeou, attended the event. Homosexuality remains a taboo in Taiwan, and many participants wore masks to hide their identities.
Internationally famous yearly pride events
Asia
- Taipei, ROC (Taiwan) (Taiwan Pride)
Europe
Image:Arcilesbica - Striscione al Gay Pride nazionale di Grosseto (2004).jpg
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Berlin, Germany (Christopher Street Day)
- Birmingham, UK (Birmingham Pride)
- Cologne, Germany (Cologne Gay Pride)
- London, UK
- Madrid, Spain
- Manchester, UK
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Warsaw, Poland (Parada Rownosci)
Latin America
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- São Paulo, Brazil (Parada do Orgulho GLBT de São Paulo)
- Lima, Peru Marcha de Orgullo
Middle East
- Tel Aviv, Israel
North America
- Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Columbus, Ohio, USA
- Denver, Colorado, USA (PrideFest Denver)
- Houston, Texas, USA
- Long Beach, California, USA
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Divers/Cité)
- New York City, New York, USA (Heritage of Pride)
- Salt Lake City, Utah, USA (Utah Pride Festival)
- San Francisco, California, USA (San Francisco Pride)
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Gay Pride Week)
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Washington, D.C., USA Millennium Pride Festival
- West Hollywood, California, USA
Oceania
- Singapore (Indignation)
- Sydney, Australia (Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras)
See also
Template:Culture-stubde:Christopher Street Day fr:Gaypride he:מצעד הגאווה it:Gay pride ja:プライド・パレード pl:Parada Równości pt:Parada do orgulho LGBT ru:Парад гордости tr:Christopher Street Day yi:שטאלץ פאראד zh:骄傲游行