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Thousands parade with gay pride
27/06/2005 16:02 - (SA)
San Francisco - Undeterred by recent setbacks in the push to legalise same-sex marriages, tens of thousands of festively dressed people marched in parades around the United States on Sunday to celebrate the 35th anniversary of gay pride.
People celebrated in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta and other cities, although the event came during a tough period for gay-rights advocates.
A bill to legalise same-sex marriages died this year in the California assembly, and many states had passed or were pursuing constitutional amendments outlawing gay marriage.
Clarence Smelcer, 43, an Aids activist watching the San Francisco parade, said: "I'm here to let the rest of the world know that we're here and we want to be seen.
"We're part of everyone's lives and the parade is a wonderful way to show it."
Heterosexual couples
Gay pride was a virtual holiday in San Francisco and thousands gathered early for the parade, including men in kilts sporting rainbow-coloured wigs, cross-dressers in kimonos and heterosexual couples waving rainbow flags.
The parade opened with a blocks-long contingent of "Dykes on Bikes" - lesbians dressed in leather, driving loud motorcycles.
Among those taking part were a bearded man in a wedding gown singing Madonna's Like a Virgin, a gay and lesbian marching band and a group of parents and friends of lesbians and gays.
The annual pride parades commemorated the Stonewall uprising of 1969, a series of fights between gays and police in New York widely considered as the beginning of the gay-rights movement.
Some of the marchers in New York were veterans of the riots.
Discrimination against gays
There were also subtle reminders of the struggles ahead.
Many in the San Francisco crowd wore stickers that read, "We All Deserve The Freedom to Marry."
Jorge Vieto jun, 27, who left Costa Rica because of discrimination against gays, said: "Anytime you have a big group of people screaming and hollering, people will pay attention.
"Marriage should be an equal opportunity, not a heterosexual right."
Ming Chan, 33, and Steve Ribisi, 34, watched the parade with their 18-month-old son, Joshua.
Although they said some would view their relationship as a threat to the sanctity of marriage, they just wanted the chance to raise their son together.
People are more fired up
George Estelle, who attended the Atlanta march and organised a parade float by Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian lobbying group, said: "People are more fired up this year.
"They're angry that they feel there's been a lot of misrepresentation about them done this year during the elections."
In New York, men in button-down shirts outnumbered men in G-strings in a parade some said was less flamboyant than in past years - but still politically relevant.
- AP
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