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A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating
lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
,
gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
,
bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
,
transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
, and
queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...
(LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements,
legal rights Some philosophers distinguish two types of rights, natural rights and legal rights. * Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are ''universal'', ''fundamental'' and ...
, and
pride Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) wh ...
. The events sometimes also serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as
same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...
. Pride events occur in many urban areas in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
and
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Most occur annually while some take place every June to commemorate the 1969
Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, a pivotal moment in modern LGBTQ social movements. The parades seek to create community and honor the history of the movement. In 1970, pride and protest marches were held in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco around the first anniversary of Stonewall. The events became annual and grew internationally. In 2019, New York and the world celebrated the largest international Pride celebration in history:
Stonewall 50 - WorldPride NYC 2019 Stonewall or Stone wall may refer to: * Stone wall, a kind of masonry construction * Stonewalling, engaging in uncooperative or delaying tactics * Stonewall riots, a 1969 turning point for the modern LGBTQ rights movement in Greenwich Village, N ...
, produced by
Heritage of Pride Heritage of Pride (HOP), doing business as NYC Pride, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that plans and produces the official New York City LGBTQIA+ Pride Week events each June. HOP began working on the events in 1984, taking on the work previ ...
commemorating the 50th anniversary of the
Stonewall Riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...
, with five million attending in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
alone. The most recent New York pride event was NYC Pride March 2022, which occurred on June 26, 2022.


Background

In 1965, the
gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 3 ...
protest movement was visible at the
Annual Reminder The Annual Reminders were a series of early pickets organized by gay organizations, held yearly from 1965 through 1969. The Reminder took place each July 4 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia and were among the earliest LGBT demonstrations in the ...
pickets, organized by members of the lesbian group
Daughters of Bilitis The Daughters of Bilitis , also called the DOB or the Daughters, was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. The organization, formed in San Francisco in 1955, was conceived as a social alternative to lesb ...
, and the gay men's group
Mattachine Society The Mattachine Society (), founded in 1950, was an early national gay rights organization in the United States, perhaps preceded only by Chicago's Society for Human Rights. Communist and labor activist Harry Hay formed the group with a collection ...
. Mattachine members were also involved in demonstrations in support of homosexuals imprisoned in
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n
labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...
s. All of these groups held protests at the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
and the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
, in 1965. Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, LGBTQ people rioted following a
police raid A police raid is an unexpected visit by police or other law-enforcement officers with the aim of using the element of surprise in order to seize evidence or arrest suspects believed to be likely to hide evidence, resist arrest, be politicall ...
on the
Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the s ...
in the
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
neighborhood of
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
, New York City.''The New York Times'', June 29, 1969 The Stonewall Inn was a
gay bar A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities. Gay bars once served as ...
which catered to an assortment of patrons, but which was popular with the most marginalized people in the gay community: transvestites,
transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
people, effeminate young men, hustlers, and homeless youth.


First pride marches

On Saturday, June 27, 1970, Chicago Gay Liberation organized a march''Chicago Tribune'', June 28, 1970, p. A3 from
Washington Square Park Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...
("Bughouse Square") to the
Water Tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...
at the intersection of
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
and
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
avenues, which was the route originally planned, and then many of the participants spontaneously 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 West Coast of the United States saw a march in San Francisco on June 27, 1970, and 'Gay-in' on June 28, 1970 and a march in Los Angeles on June 28, 1970.''The San Francisco Chronicle'', June 29, 1970"As of early 1970, Neil Briggs became the vice-chairman of the LGBTQ Association"
CanPress, February 28, 1970.
In Los Angeles,
Morris Kight Morris Kight (November 19, 1919January 19, 2003) was an American gay rights pioneer and peace activist. He is considered one of the original founders of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement in the United States. Biography Early life Kight ...
(Gay Liberation Front LA founder), Reverend Troy Perry (Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches founder) and Reverend Bob Humphries (United States Mission founder) gathered to plan a commemoration. They settled on a parade down Hollywood Boulevard. But securing a permit from the city was no easy task. They named their organization Christopher Street West, "as ambiguous as we could be." But Rev. Perry recalled the Los Angeles Police Chief Edward M. Davis telling him, "As far as I'm concerned, granting a permit to a group of homosexuals to parade down Hollywood Boulevard would be the same as giving a permit to a group of thieves and robbers." Grudgingly, the Police Commission granted the permit, though there were fees exceeding $1.5 million. After the American Civil Liberties Union stepped in, the commission dropped all its requirements but a $1,500 fee for police service. That, too, was dismissed when the California Superior Court ordered the police to provide protection as they would for any other group. The eleventh-hour California Supreme Court decision ordered the police commissioner to issue a parade permit citing the "constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression." From the beginning, L.A. parade organizers and participants knew there were risks of violence. Kight received death threats right up to the morning of the parade. Unlike later editions, the first gay parade was very quiet. The marchers convened on Mccadden Place in
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
, marched north and turned east onto Hollywood Boulevard. '' The Advocate'' reported "Over 1,000 homosexuals and their friends staged, not just a protest march, but a full-blown parade down world-famous Hollywood Boulevard." On Sunday, June 28, 1970, at around noon, in New York gay
activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
groups held their own pride parade, known as the
Christopher Street Liberation Day The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in New York City. Among the largest Pride events in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each J ...
, to recall the events of Stonewall one year earlier. On November 2, 1969,
Craig Rodwell Craig L. Rodwell (October 31, 1940 – June 18, 1993) 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 ...
, his partner Fred Sargeant,
Ellen Broidy Ellen Broidy is an American gay rights activist. She was one of the proposers and a co-organizer the first gay pride march. Early life Broidy grew up in Peter Cooper Village, a housing project in New York City. Broidy says she knew she was a l ...
, and Linda Rhodes 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 Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. All attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for the Matta chine Society of New York City, which abstained. Members of the
Gay Liberation Front Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK and Canada. The GLF provided a ...
(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 is an east–west street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was ...
. At first there was difficulty getting some of the major New York organizations like
Gay Activists Alliance The Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) was founded in New York City on December 21, 1969, almost six months after the Stonewall riots, by dissident members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). In contrast to the Liberation Front, the Activists Alliance ...
(GAA) to send representatives. Craig Rodwell and his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Michael Brown, Marty Nixon, and Foster Gunnison of Matta chine 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 The Oscar Wilde Bookshop was a Bookselling, bookstore located in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood that focused on LGBT works. It was founded by Craig Rodwell on November 24, 1967, as the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. Initially locat ...
customer mailing list and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer for that organization. Other mainstays of the GLF organizing committee were Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and
Brenda Howard Brenda Howard (December 24, 1946 – June 28, 2005) was an American bisexual rights activist and sex-positive feminist. The Brenda Howard Memorial Award is named for her. Biography Howard was born in the Bronx, New York City and grew up in S ...
. 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 Richard Joseph Leitsch (May 11, 1935 – June 22, 2018), also known as Richard Valentine Leitsch and more commonly Dick Leitsch, was an American LGBT rights activist. He was president of gay rights group the Mattachine Society in the 1960s. He co ...
's replacement as president of Mattachine NY by Michael Kotis in April 1970, opposition to the march by Mattachine ended. The first marches were both serious and fun, and served to inspire the widening
LGBT movement Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Some focus on equal rights, such as the ongoing movement for same-sex marriage, while others focus on liberation, as in the ...
; they were repeated in the following years, and more and more annual marches started up in other cities throughout the world. In
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
and New York City the marches were called ''Gay Liberation Marches'', and the day of celebration was called "Gay Liberation Day"; in Los Angeles and San Francisco they became known as 'Gay Freedom Marches' and the day was called "Gay Freedom Day". As more cities and even smaller towns began holding their own celebrations, these names spread. The rooted ideology behind the parades is a critique of space which has been produced to seem
heteronormative Heteronormativity is the concept that heterosexuality is the preferred or normal mode of sexual orientation. It assumes the gender binary (i.e., that there are only two distinct, opposite genders) and that sexual and marital relations are most ...
and 'straight', and therefore any act appearing to be homosexual is considered dissident by society. The Parade brings this
queer culture Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual mi ...
into the space. The marches spread internationally, including to
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
where the first "gay pride rally" took place on 1 July 1972, the date chosen deliberately to mark the third anniversary of the
Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...
. 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".


Description

Many parades still have at least some of the original political or
activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
character, especially in less accepting settings. The variation is largely dependent upon the political, economic, and religious settings of the area. However, in more accepting cities, the parades take on a festive or even
Mardi Gras Mardi Gras (, ) refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday, which is known as Shrove Tuesday. is French for "Fat ...
-like character, whereby the political stage is built on notions of celebration. Large parades often involve floats, dancers,
drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...
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 The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), also known as the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), is an international LGBT-affirming mainline Protestant Christian denomination. There are 222 member congregations in 37 ...
es,
United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximately 4 ...
, and
Unitarian Universalist Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to: Christian and Christian-derived theologies A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism: * Unitarianism (1565–present) ...
Churches,
PFLAG PFLAG is the United States' first and largest organization uniting parents, families, and allies with people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+). PFLAG National is the national organization, which provides support to ...
, and LGBT employee associations from large businesses. Even the most festive parades usually offer some aspect dedicated to remembering victims of
AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
and anti-LGBT violence. Some particularly important pride parades are funded by governments and corporate sponsors and promoted as major
tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural b ...
s 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. The 'dividing line' between onlookers and those marching in the parade can be hard to establish in some events, however, in cases where the event is received with hostility, such a separation becomes very obvious. There have been studies considering how the relationship between participants and onlookers is affected by the divide, and how space is used to critique the heteronormative nature of society. 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 passage of time 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". Pride parades are held in many
urban areas An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...
and in many countries where the
urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...
rate is at least 80%. The
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
,
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
,
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
,
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
are the best countries for holding pride parades.


Notable pride events


Africa


Madagascar


Malawi

On 26 June 2021, a community of the LGBT community in Malawi held its first Pride Parade. The parade was held in the country's capital city, Lilongwe.


Mauritius

As of June 2006, the Rainbow Parade Mauritius is held every June in
Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
in the town of Rose Hill. It is organized by the Collective Arc-En-Ciel, a local non-governmental LGBTI rights group, along with some other local non-governmental groups.


South Africa

The first South African pride parade was held towards the end of the
apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
era in
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
on October 13, 1990, the first such event on the African continent. Section Nine of the country's 1996 constitution provides for
equality Equality may refer to: Society * Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing ** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elite ...
and
freedom from discrimination The right to freedom from discrimination is internationally recognised as a human right and enshrines the principle of egalitarianism. The right to freedom from discrimination is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enshrined ...
on the grounds of sexual orientation among other factors. The Joburg Pride organizing body disbanded in 2013 due to internal conflict about whether the event should continue to be used for political advocacy. A new committee was formed in May 2013 to organize a "People's Pride", which was "envisioned as an inclusive and explicitly political movement for social justice". Other pride parades held in the Johannesburg area include Soweto Pride which takes place annually in Meadowlands,
Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
, and Ekurhuleni Pride which takes place annually in
KwaThema KwaThema is a township south-west of Springs in the district of Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1951 when Africans were forcibly removed from Payneville because it was considered by the apartheid government to be too clos ...
, a township on the
East Rand The East Rand is the urban eastern part of the Witwatersrand that is functionally merged with the Johannesburg conurbation in South Africa. The region extends from Alberton in the west to Nigel in the east, and south down to Nigel. It includes ...
. Pride parades held in other South African cities include the Cape Town Pride parade and Khumbu Lani Pride in
Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, Durban Pride in
Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
, and Nelson Mandela Bay Pride in
Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...
. Limpopo Pride is held in
Polokwane Polokwane (, meaning "Sanctuary" in Northern SothoPolokwane - The Heart of the Limpopo Province ...
,
Limpopo Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature is ...
.


Uganda

In August 2012, the first Ugandan pride parade was held in
Entebbe Entebbe is a city in Central Uganda. Located on a Lake Victoria peninsula, approximately southwest of the Ugandan capital city, Kampala. Entebbe was once the seat of government for the Protectorate of Uganda prior to independence, in 1962. The c ...
to protest the government's treatment of its LGBT citizens and the attempts by the Ugandan Parliament to adopt harsher
sodomy Sodomy () or buggery (British English) is generally anal or oral sex between people, or sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal ( bestiality), but it may also mean any non- procreative sexual activity. Originally, the term ''sodo ...
laws, colloquially named the
Kill the Gays Bill The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 was an act passed by the Parliament of Uganda on 20 December 2013, which prohibited sexual relations between persons of the same sex. The act was previously called the "Kill the Gays bill" in the western mains ...
, which would include life imprisonment for aggravated homosexuality. A second pride parade was held in Entebbe in August 2013. The law was promulgated in December 2013 and subsequently ruled invalid by the
Constitutional Court of Uganda The Court of Appeal of Uganda (also constituted as the Constitutional Court of Uganda) is the second-highest court, judicial organ in Uganda. It derives its powers from Article 134 of the Constitution of Uganda, 1995 Constitution. It is an appel ...
on August 1, 2014 on technical grounds. On August 9, 2014, Ugandans held a third pride parade in Entebbe despite indications that the ruling may be appealed and/or the law reintroduced in Parliament and homosexual acts still being illegal in the country.


Asia


East Timor

The first pride march in
East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...
's capital
Dili Dili (Portuguese/Tetum: ''Díli'') is the capital, largest city of East Timor and the second largest city in Timor islands after Kupang (Indonesia). It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in ...
was held in 2017.


Hong Kong

The first International Day Against Homophobia pride parade in Hong Kong was held on May 16, 2005, under the theme "Turn Fear into Love", calling for acceptance and care amongst gender and sexual minorities in a diverse and friendly society. The Hong Kong Pride Parade 2008 boosted the rally count above 1,000 in the second largest
East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
n Pride after Taipei's. By now a firmly annual event, Pride 2013 saw more than 5,200 participants. The city continues to hold the event every year, except in 2010 when it was not held due to a budget shortfall. In the Hong Kong Pride Parade 2018, the event broke the record with 12,000 participants. The police arrested a participant who violated the law of "outraging public decency" by wearing only his underwear in an area of the road cordoned off for the parade.


India

On June 29, 2008, four Indian cities (
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
,
Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
,
Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...
, and
Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
) saw coordinated pride events. 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 - making it South Asia's first pride walk and then had been organizing pride events every year since 2003 (although there was a gap of a year or so in-between). 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 Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...
appealed for greater social tolerance towards homosexuals at an AIDS event. On August 16, 2008 (one day after the Independence Day of India), the gay community in
Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
held its first-ever formal pride parade (although informal pride parades had been held many times earlier), to demand that
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
's anti-gay laws be amended. A high court in the Indian capital, Delhi ruled on July 2, 2009, that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults was not a criminal act, although the Supreme Court later reversed its decision in 2013 under widespread pressure from powerful conservative and religious groups, leading to the re-criminalization of homosexuality in India. Pride parades have also been held in smaller Indian cities such as
Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...
,
Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...
,
Bhubaneshwar Bhubaneswar (; ) is the capital and largest city of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Odisha. The region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Ekamra Kshetra'' (area (''kshetra'') adorned with mango tr ...
and
Thrissur Thrissur (), formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi and Kozhikode, and t ...
. 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. On September 6, 2018, sex between same-sex adults was legalized by India's Supreme Court. On September 12, 2022,
Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...
celebrated its first 'Queer Pride Walk' held in
Agartala Agartala () is the capital city of the Indian state of Tripura, and is one of the largest cities in northeast India. The city is governed by the Agartala Municipal Corporation. The city is the seat of the Government of Tripura. It is located on ...
. The major goal of the queer pride parade is to honor and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons, as well as to raise awareness in society so that people can break free from the stigma and biases that surround them. Swabhiman, a non-governmental organization, coordinated the Queer Pride Walk. More than seven months after four transgender people in
Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...
had a harrowing experience at a police station that went viral on social media, the state's queer community held its first-ever pride walk on Monday in
Agartala Agartala () is the capital city of the Indian state of Tripura, and is one of the largest cities in northeast India. The city is governed by the Agartala Municipal Corporation. The city is the seat of the Government of Tripura. It is located on ...
, claiming the right to live in dignity and equality, free of gender discrimination, stigma, and taboo for being different. Hundreds of lesbians, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) persons marched in the colorful pride parade, waving rainbow flags and holding banners urging people to reject gender stigma and sexuality stereotypes. 'Swabhiman' President Sneha Gupta Roy asserted the necessity for the state to establish a Transgender Welfare Board to protect the rights of the gay community, adding, "The society must accept us as we are. We, too, are members of society and should not face discrimination. The source of societal biases, discrimination, and injustice directed at us is, surprisingly, a lack of knowledge. We, too, have the right to live with respect and dignity, and in order to do so, the Central Government must work to develop the community's skills and create employment opportunities that will prevent members of the community from resorting to unethical means of income and thus becoming socially marginalized."


Israel

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
hosts an annual pride parade, attracting more than 260,000 people, making it the largest LGBT pride event in Asia. Three Pride parades took place in Tel Aviv on the week of June 11, 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 200,000 participants. The first Pride parade in Tel Aviv took place in 1993. On June 30, 2005, the fourth annual Pride march of
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
took place. The Jerusalem parade has been met with resistance due to the high presence of religious bodies in the city. It had originally been prohibited by a municipal ban which was canceled by the court. Many of the religious leaders of Jerusalem's
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
,
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, and
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
communities had arrived at a rare consensus asking the municipal government to cancel the permit of the parades. 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 the summer of
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan The Israeli disengagement from Gaza ( he, תוכנית ההתנתקות, ') was the unilateral dismantling in 2005 of the 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of Israeli settlers and army from inside the Gaza Strip. Th ...
. In 2006, it was again postponed due to the
Israel-Hezbollah war The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War ( ar, حرب تموز, ''Ḥarb Tammūz'') and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War ( he, מלחמת לבנון השנייה, ''Milhemet Leva ...
. It was scheduled to take place in Jerusalem on November 10, 2006, caused a wave of protests by
Haredi Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...
Jews around central Israel. The
Israel National Police The Israel Police ( he, משטרת ישראל, ''Mišteret Yisra'el''; ar, شرطة إسرائيل, ''Shurtat Isrāʼīl'') is the civilian police force of Israel. As with most other police forces in the world, its duties include crime fightin ...
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 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
stadium in Jerusalem. June 21, 2007, the
Jerusalem Open House The Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance (JOH, he, הבית הפתוח בירושלים לגאווה ולסובלנות ''HaBayit HaPatuach'', "Open House" ar, البيت المفتوح في القدس للفخر والتسامح ''Al- ...
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 canceled due to an unrelated national fire brigade strike which prevented proper permits from being issued. The parade was postponed once more in 2014, as a result of Protective Edge Operation. In 2022 local environmentalists from Tel Aviv started planning how to make the current year's parade and future parades more sustainable, using composting stations and removing single use plastic from the largest pride parade in the Middle East.


Japan

''See also Pride Parade in Japan'' The first Pride Parade in Japan was held on August 28, 1994, in Tokyo (while the names were not Pride Parade until 2007). In 2005, an administrative institution, the Tokyo Pride was founded to have Pride Parade constantly every year. In May 2011, Tokyo Pride was dissolved and most of the original management went on to found Tokyo Rainbow Pride. The most recent Pride parade in Tokyo was Tokyo Rainbow Parade 2022, held on April 23 and 24, 2022. * Tokyo ** 1994 –1999 Tokyo Lesbian Gay Parade, sponsored by a gay-oriented magazine ** 2000 – 2002, 2005–2006 Tokyo Lesbian & Gay Parade ** 2007 – 2010 Tokyo Pride Parade ** August 11, 2012, Save the Pride ** 2012 – present Tokyo Rainbow Pride, the successor organization to Tokyo Pride Parade and Tokyo Lesbian & Gay Parade. ** April 25 – 26, 2020 Rainbow Parade ** April 24 – 25, 2021 Rainbow Parade ** April 23 – 24, 2022 Rainbow Parade * Other ** 1996–1999, 2001–2012 Rainbow March
Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...
** May 13, 2006,
Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...
gay parade, the
Kansai The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshu, Honshū. The region includes the Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Nara Prefecture, Nara, Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama, Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka Prefectur ...
's first holding. ** 2007 LGBTIQ Pride March in Kobe 2007 ** 2006 – 2007
Kansai The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshu, Honshū. The region includes the Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Nara Prefecture, Nara, Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama, Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka Prefectur ...
Rainbow Parade ** May 4, 2007, Queer Rainbow Parade in Hakata


Lebanon

Beirut Pride is the annual non-profit LGBTIQ+ pride event and militant march held in
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
, the capital of the
Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
, working to decriminalize homosexuality in Lebanon. Since its inception in 2017, Beirut Pride has been the first and only LGBTIQ+ pride in the arabophone world, and its largest LGBTIQ+ event. It has been the topic of four MA theses, one post-doctoral research and six documentaries, so far covered in 17 languages in 350 articles. Its first installment gathered 4,000 persons, and 2,700 people participated in the first three days of its 2018 edition, before the police cracked it down and arrested its founder Hadi Damien. The next day, the prosecutor of Beirut suspended the scheduled activities, and initiated criminal proceedings against Hadi for organizing events “that incite to debauchery”. Beirut Pride holds annual events adapted to the current circumstances in the country.


South Korea

Queer Culture Festivals in South Korea consist of pride parades and various other LGBT events, such as
film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...
s. Currently there are eight Queer Culture Festivals, including Seoul Queer Culture Festival (since 2000), Daegu Queer Culture Festival (since 2009), Busan Queer Culture Festival (since 2017), Jeju Queer Culture Festival (since 2017), Jeonju Queer Culture Festival (since 2018), Gwangju Queer Culture Festival (since 2018), and Incheon Queer Culture Festival (since 2018).


Nepal

Nepal Pride Parade is organized on June 29 every year. There are also Pride Parades organized by Blue Diamond Society and Mitini Nepal. A youth-led pride parade which uses broader umbrella terms as Queer and MOGAI, is organized by Queer Youth Group and Queer Rights Collective. Blue Diamond Society's rally on
Gai Jatra Gai Jatra (), also known by its endonym Sa Paru (Nepal Bhasa: ), is a Nepalese festival celebrated mainly in the Kathmandu valley by the Newar people. The festival is celebrated in honour of their immediate relatives who have died during the pr ...
is technically not considered as a Pride Parade. Mitini Nepal organizes Pride Parades on Feb 14 while, a Queer
Womxn The term ''womxn'' is an alternative spelling of the English word ''woman''. ''Womxn'' has been found in writing since the 1970s, along with the term womyn, to avoid perceived sexism in the standard spelling, which contains the word ''man''. The ...
Pride is also organized on International Women's Day.


Philippines

In 1992, the Lesbian Collective marched during the Internal Women's Day celebrations only to be met with opposition by progressive feminist movements marching. In 1993, UP Babaylan, a LGBT student support group, participated in the University of the Philippines Diliman's Lantern March. Thanks to the positive reception from this march, members of UP Babaylan would participate in any future Lantern Marches. On June 26, 1994, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines (Pro Gay Philippines) and Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) Manila organized the first LGBT Pride March in Philippines, marching from EDSA corner Quezon Avenue to Quezon City Memorial Circle (
Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populatio ...
, 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, Pro Gay Philippines and MCC did not lead a pride parade. In 1996, 1997 and 1998 large and significant marches were organized and produced by Reach Out AIDS Foundation, all of which were held in Malate, Manila, Philippines. These pride parades were organized a celebration of gay pride, but also were parading to raise awareness for discrimination and the misinformation surrounding AIDS. In 1999, Reach Out Aids Foundation handed its organization to a newly formed Task Force Pride Philippines (TFP), a network of LGBT and LGBT-friendly groups and individuals seeking to promote positive visibility for the LGBT community. In 2003, a decision was made 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). TFP organized the pride parades for two decades before the Metro Manila Pride organization would assume responsibility in 2016. On December 10, 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. In 2007, the first transgender women's group participated in the Metro Manila Pride March. On December 6, 2014, Philippines celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Metro Manila Pride March with the theme: Come Out for Love ''Kasi Pag-ibig Pa Rin'' (Come Out for Love Because It's Still All About Love). The theme is a reminder of the love and passion that started and sustained 20 years of taking to the streets for the recognition and respect of LGBT lives as human lives. It is also a celebration of and an invitation for families, friends, and supporters of LGBT people to claim Metro Manila Pride as a safe space to voice their support for the community, for the LGBT human rights advocacy, and for the people they love and march with every year.


Taiwan

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...
hosts an annual Gay Pride Parade in October. Recently in 2019, the 17th Taiwan LGBT parade is the first gay parade after Taiwan 's same-sex marriage legislation, with attendances of over 200,000, which the largest such event in
East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
. On November 1, 2003, the first
Taiwan Pride Taiwan Pride () is the annual LGBTQ 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 capital city of Taipei. The parade held in October ...
was held in Taipei with over 1,000 people attending. The parade held in September 2008 attracted around 18,000 attendances. After 2008, the numbers grew rapidly. In 2009, around 5,000 people under the slogan "Love out loud" ( zh, 同志愛很大). In 2010, despite bad weather conditions the Taiwan gay parade "Out and Vote" attracted more than 30,000 people. Other parades take place at cities throughout Taiwan in:
Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...
,
Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Taiw ...
,
Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" ...
,
Yilan Yilan may refer to: China * Yilan County, Heilongjiang (依兰县), county of central Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China * Yilan Town, Heilongjiang (依兰镇), seat of Yilan County * Yilan, Jilin (依兰镇), town in Yanji Taiwan ...
,
Hsinchu Hsinchu (, Chinese: 新竹, Pinyin: ''Xīnzhú'', Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan Province not among the special municipalities, with estimated 450,655 inhabi ...
and East of Taiwan. In 2022, 120,000 people participated in the Taipei Pride march.


Thailand

The first ever Pride parade was held in Bangkok on 6 June 2022.


Vietnam

On August 3, 2012, the first LGBT Viet Pride event was held in Hanoi, Vietnam with indoor activities such as film screenings, research presentations, and a bicycle rally on August 5, 2012, that attracted almost 200 people riding to support the LGBT cause. Viet Pride has since expanded, now taking place in 17 cities and provinces in Vietnam in the first weekend of August, attracting around 700 bikers in 2014 in Hanoi, and was reported on many mainstream media channels.


Europe


Southeastern Europe

The first southeastern European Pride, called ''The Internationale Pride'', was assumed to be a promotion of the human right to freedom of assembly in
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
and some Eastern European states, where such rights of the LGBT population are not respected, and a support for organising the first Prides in those communities. Out of all ex- Yugoslav states, at that time only
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
and
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
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 , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
from June 22–25, 2006 and brought together representatives of those Eastern European and Balkans, 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 Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
,
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
, 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). Republic of Macedonia, North Macedonia and Albania also host Pride Parades with no major issues arising, mainly due to the protection from police. Lithuania has never had Prides before. There were also representatives from Kosovo, that participated apart from Serbia. It was the 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.


Bosnia and Herzegovina

The first Sarajevo Pride, Pride parade in Bosnia and Herzegovina was held on 8 September 2019 in Sarajevo under the slogan ''Ima Izać' '' (Coming Out). Around 4000 people, including foreign diplomats, members of the local government and celebrities participated amidst a strong police presence. According to a 2021 study, the first LGBT+ Pride parade in Sarajevo led to increased support for LGBT activism in Sarajevo. It did not however diffuse nationwide.


Bulgaria

Like the other countries from the Balkans, Bulgaria's population is very conservative when it comes to issues like Sexual orientation, sexuality. Although homosexuality was decriminalized 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 skinheads , 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 UK, 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.


Croatia

First pride parade in Croatia was held on 29 June 2002 in Zagreb Pride, Zagreb and has been held annually ever since. The attendance has gradually grown from 350 in 2002 to 15.000 in 2013. Pride parades are also held in Split Pride, Split (since 2011) and Osijek Pride, Osijek (since 2014).


Denmark

The Copenhagen Pride festival is held every year in August. In its current format, it has been held every year since 1996, where Copenhagen hosted EuroPride. Before 1994 the national LGBT association organised demonstration-like freedom marches. Copenhagen Pride is a colourful and festive occasion, combining political issues with concerts, films and a parade. The focal point is the City Hall Square, Copenhagen, City Hall Square in the city centre. It usually opens on the Wednesday of Pride Week, culminating on the Saturday with a parade and Denmark's Mr Gay contest. In 2017, some 25,000 people took part in the parade with float (parade), floats and flags, and about 300,000 were out in the streets to experience it. The smaller Aarhus Pride in held every year in June in the Jutlandic city of Aarhus.


Estonia

The Baltic Pride event was held in Tallinn in 2011, 2014 and 2017.


Finland

The Helsinki Pride was first organized in 1975 and called ''Freedom Day''. It has grown into one of the biggest Nordic Pride events. Between 20,000 and 30,000 people participate in the Pride and its events annually, including a number of international participants from the Baltic countries and Russia. There have been a few incidents over the years, the most serious one being a gas and pepper spray attack in 2010 hitting around 30 parade participants, among those children. Three men were later arrested. In addition to Helsinki, several other Finnish cities such as Tampere, Turku, Lahti, Oulu and Rovaniemi have hosted their own Pride events. Even small Savonia (historical province), Savonian town of Kangasniemi with just 5,000 inhabitants hosted their own Pride first time in 2015.


France

Paris Pride hosts an annual Gay Pride Parade last Saturday in June, with attendances of over 800,000. Eighteen other parades take place at cities throughout France in: Angers, Biarritz, Bayonne, Bordeaux, Caen, Le Mans, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nancy, France, Nancy, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Rennes, Rouen, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Tours.


Germany

Both Berlin Pride and Cologne Pride claim to be one of the biggest in Europe. The first so-called Gay Freedom Day took place on June 30, 1979, in both cities. Berlin Pride parade is now held every year the last Saturday in July. Cologne Pride celebrates two weeks of supporting cultural programme prior to the parade taking place on Sunday of the first July weekend. An alternative march used to be on the Saturday prior to the Cologne Pride parade, but now takes place a week earlier. Pride parades in Germany are often called Christopher Street Days - named after the street where the Stonewall Inn was located.


Greece

In Greece, endeavours were made during the 1980s and 1990s to organise such an event, but it was not until 2005 that Athens Pride was established. The Athens Pride is held every June in the centre of Athens city. As of 2012, there is a second pride parade taking place in the city of Thessaloniki. The Thessaloniki Pride is also held annually every June. 2015 and 2016 brought two more pride parades, the Crete Pride taking place annually in Crete and the Patras Pride, that was held in Patras for the first time in June 2016.


Greenland

In May 2010, Nuuk celebrated its first pride parade. Over 1,000 people attended. It has been repeated every year since then, part of a festival called Nuuk Pride.


Iceland

First held in 1999, Reykjavík Pride celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2019. Held in early August each year, the event attracts up to 100,000 participants – approaching a third of Iceland's population.


Ireland

The Dublin Pride Festival usually takes place in June. The Festival involves the Pride Parade, the route of which is from O'Connell Street to Merrion Square. However, the route was changed for the 2017 Parade due to Luas Cross City works. The parade attracts thousands of people who line the streets each year. It gained momentum after the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, 2015 Marriage Equality Referendum.


Italy

The first public demonstration within the LGBT community in Italy took place in Sanremo, San Remo on April 5, 1972 as a protest against the International Congress on Sexual Deviance organized by the Catholic-inspired Italian Center of Sexology. The event was attended by about forty people belonging to various homophile groups, including ones from France, Belgium, Great Britain's Gay Liberation Front, and Italy's activist homosexual rights group '. The first Italian event specifically associated with international celebrations of Gay Pride was the sixth congress of ''Fuori!'' held in Turin in late June 1978 and included a week of films on gay subjects. Episodes of violence against homosexuals were frequent in Italy, such as in the summer of 1979 when two young gay men were killed in Livorno. In Pisa in November of that year, the organized the first march against anti-gay violence. Around 500 gay and lesbian participants attended, and this remained the largest gathering of the kind until 1994. Later, a system of "national Pride" observances designated one city to hold the official events, starting with Rome in 1994. Starting in 2013, the organization Onda Pride organized additional events, and in 2019 events were organized in 39 cities nationwide.


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 Riga City Council, and the then-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 Vērmane Garden, protected physically from "No Pride" protesters by 1,500 State Police (Latvia), Latvian police, with ringing the inside and the outside of the iron railings of the park. Two fire crackers were detonated with one being thrown from outside at the end of the festival as participants were moving off to the buses. A man and his son were afterwards arrested by the police. This caused some alarm but no injury, although 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 Jūrmala. Participants included Member of the European Parliament, MEPs, Amnesty International observers and random individuals who travelled from abroad to support LGBT Latvians and their friends and families. In 2008, the Riga Pride was held in the historically potent 11. novembra krastmala (November 11 Bank (geography), Embankment) beneath the Riga Castle. The participants heard speeches from MEPs and a message of support from the President of Latvia, Latvian President. The embankment 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. In 2009, the annual Baltic Pride was launched, with the first edition being held in Riga with a march. This event and the following ones have been held without serious incidents. The 2012 Baltic Pride was held on June 2. The parade marched through Tērbatas street from the corner of Ģertrūdes street towards Vērmane Garden, where concerts and a conference were held. The events were attended by the List of ambassadors of the United States to Latvia, United States Ambassador to Latvia Judith G. Garber, Judith Garber and the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs (Latvia), Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkēvičs. In 2015, Riga hosted the pan-European Europride, EuroPride event with about 5000 participants engaging in approximately 50 cultural and entertainment events. The Baltic Pride event returned to Riga in 2018, the year of the Latvia 100, centenary of the independence of Latvia and all three Baltic states. An estimated 8000 people took part. The events took place for 100 days from March 3 to June 10 with the parade being held through the city on June 9.


Lithuania

In 2010 first pride parade - the 2nd Baltic Pride - in Lithuania was held in Vilnius. About 300 foreign guests marched through the streets along the local participants. Law was enforced with nearly a thousand policemen. The city also hosted the event in 2013 and 2016 gathering around 3 thousand participants each year. The 2019 Baltic Pride was held on June 4–9 in Vilnius. An estimated 10 thousand people marched through the central part of the city.


Netherlands

In Amsterdam, a Pride Pride has been held since 1996. The week(end)-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. The Utrecht Canal Pride is the second largest gay pride in the country, organised annually since 2017. Smaller Pride parades are organised in many larger cities across the country.


Poland

The oldest pride parade in Poland, the Equality Parade in Warsaw, has been organized since 2001. In 2005, the parade 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. The last parade in Warsaw, in 2019, drew 80,000 people. Other Polish cities which host pride parades are Kraków, Łódź, Poznań, Gdańsk, Toruń, Wrocław, Lublin, Częstochowa, Rzeszów, Opole, Zielona Góra, Konin, Bydgoszcz, Szczecin, Kalisz, Koszalin, Olsztyn, Kielce, Gniezno, Katowice, Białystok, Radomsko, and Płock.


Portugal

In Lisbon, the Pride Parade, known as ''Marcha do Orgulho LGBTI+,'' has been held every year since 2000, as well as in Porto since 2006. In 2017, Funchal hosted their first Pride Parade.


Russia

Prides in Russia are generally banned by city authorities in St. Petersburg and Moscow, due to opposition from politicians and religious leaders. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has described the proposed Moscow Pride as "satanic". 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.Sidney Morning Herald
Smh.com.au (May 28, 2007). Retrieved on 2011-07-10.
This was not the case in the high-profile attempted march in May 2009, during the Eurovision Song 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. In June 2012, Moscow courts enacted a hundred-year ban on pride parades.


Serbia

On June 30, 2001, several LGBT rights in Serbia, Serbian LGBTQ groups attempted to hold the country's first Pride march in Belgrade. 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 organizations 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. On July 21, 2009, a group of human rights activists announced their plans to organize second Belgrade Pride on September 20, 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, Belgrade anti-gay riot, a riot broke out in which 5600 police clashed with six thousand anti-gay protesters at Serbia's second ever Gay Pride march attempt, with nearly 147 policemen and around 20 civilians reported wounded in the violence. Every attempt of organizing the parade between 2010 and 2014 was banned. In 2013, the plan was to organize the parade on September 28. It was banned by the government only a day before on September 27. Only a few hours after, a few hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Serbian Government building in Nemanjina street and marched to the Parliament building in Bulevar kralja Aleksandra. In 2014, the pride parade was allowed to be held on September 28. It was protected by 7,000 police and went smoothly. There were some incidents and violence around the city, but on a smaller scale than previous times the parade was held. In 2015, the pride parade, as well as a trans pride, was held on 20 September with no incidents. In 2016, for the first time alternative pride parade called Pride Serbia was held on 25 June, and the Belgrade Pride was held on 18 September. Both were held with no incidents. In 2017, three pride parades were held with no incidents, two in Belgrade and one in Niš. In 2018, Belgrade Pride was attended by thousands of people and it became one of the biggest Pride Parade festival in the region.


Slovenia

Although first LGBTQ festival in
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
dates to 1984, namely the Ljubljana Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the first pride parade was only organized in 2001 after a gay couple was asked to leave a Ljubljana café for being homosexual. Ljubljana pride is traditionally supported by the mayor of Ljubljana and left-wing politicians. On June 30, 2019, Maribor held their first pride parade which was largely supported by several embassy ambassadors and other organizations.


Spain

Madrid Pride Parade, known as ''Fiesta del Orgullo Gay'' (or simply ''Fiesta del Orgullo''), ''Manifestación Estatal del Orgullo LGTB'' and ''Día del Orgullo Gay'' (or simply ''Día del Orgullo''), is held the first Saturday after June 28 since 1979. The event is organised by COGAM (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 Pride Parade in Madrid was held in June 1979 nearly four years after the death of Spain's dictator Francisco Franco, with the gradual arrival of democracy and the de-criminalization of homosexuality. Since then, dozens of companies like Microsoft, Google and Schweppes and several political parties and trade unions, including Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, Podemos (Spanish political party), PODEMOS, United Left (Spain), United Left, Union, Progress and Democracy, CCOO and Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT have been sponsoring and supporting the parade. Madrid Pride Parade is 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 one 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 (LGBT sporting event), Eurogames. In 2014, Winter Pride Maspalomas was held for the first time at Maspalomas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, one of one Europe's most popular LGTB tourist destinations. Within a few years of its existence, Winter Pride Maspalomas became a major Pride celebration within Spain and Europe. During its 6th edition in November 2019, the Pride Walk LGBT equal rights march had over 18,000 international visitors. In 2017, Madrid hosted the WorldPride. It would be the first time WorldPride was celebrated in a Spanish city.


Sweden

The Stockholm Pride, sometimes styled as ''STHLM Pride'', is the biggest annual Pride event in the Nordic countries with over 60,000 participants early and 600,000 people following the parade. The Stockholm Pride is notable for several officials such as the Swedish Police Authority and Swedish Armed Forces having their own entities in the parade. Several Swedish cities have their own Pride festivals, most notably Gothenburg and Malmö. In 2018, Stockholm Pride and Gothenburg West Pride, co-hosted the 25th annual EuroPride parade.


Turkey

Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country in which a gay pride march was held. However, the parades have been banned nationwide since 2015. Authorities cite security concerns and threats from far-right and Islamist groups, but severe police retrubution against marchers had led to accusations of discrimination tied to the country's increasing Islamization under Erdogan. In Istanbul (since 2003), in Ankara (since 2008) and in Izmir (since 2013) LGBT marches were being held each year with an increasing participation. Gay pride march in Istanbul started with 30 people in 2003 and in 2010 the participation became 5,000. The pride March 2011 and 2012 were attended by more than 15,000 participants. On June 30, 2013, the pride parade attracted almost 100,000 people. The protesters were joined by Gezi Park protesters, making the 2013 Istanbul Pride the biggest pride ever held in Turkey. On the same day, the first Izmir Pride took place with 2000 participants. Another pride took place in Antalya. Politicians of the biggest opposition party, Republican People's Party, CHP and another opposition party, Peace and Democracy Party, BDP also lent their support to the demonstration. The pride march in Istanbul does not receive any support of the municipality or the government. On June 28, 2015, police in Istanbul interrupted the parade, which the organisers said was not permitted that year due to the holy month Ramadan, by firing pepper spray and rubber bullets.


United Kingdom

There are five main pride events in the UK LGBT pride calendar: London Community Pride, London, Brighton Pride, Brighton, Liverpool, Manchester Pride, Manchester, and Birmingham Pride, Birmingham being the largest and are the cities with the biggest gay populations. Pride in London is one of the biggest in Europe and takes place on the final Saturday in June or first Saturday in July each year. London also hosted a Black Pride in August and Soho Pride or a similar event every September. During the early-1980s, there was a women-only Lesbian Strength march held each year a week before the Gay Pride march. 2012 saw World Pride coming to London. Starting in 2017, there is a Pride parade for the city's Black community that takes place the day after the main Pride parade, at the Vauxhall Gardens. In February 2018, the charity Stonewall (charity), Stonewall announced that they would support Black Pride instead of the main Pride parade. Brighton Pride is held on the first Saturday of August (apart from in 2012 when the event was moved to September due to the 2012 Olympics). The event starts from the seafront and culminating at Preston Park, Brighton, Preston Park. Liverpool Pride was launched in 2010, but by 2011 it became the largest free Gay Pride festival in the United Kingdom outside London. (LGBT culture in Liverpool, Liverpool's LGBT population was 94,000 by mid-2009 according to the North West Regional Development Agency. Manchester Pride has been running since 1985 and centres around the famous Canal Street (Manchester), Canal Street. It is traditionally a four-day celebration held over the Public holidays in the United Kingdom, August bank holiday weekend. Birmingham Pride usually takes place during the final Spring bank holiday weekend in May, and focuses on the Birmingham Gay Village area of the city, with upwards of 70,000 people in attendance annually. Pride events also happen in most other major cities such as Belfast, Bristol Pride, Bristol, Pride Cymru, Cardiff, Pride Scotia, Edinburgh, Pride Glasgow, Glasgow, Pride in Hull, Hull, Leeds Pride, Leeds, Leicester Pride, Leicester, Northern Pride (festival), Newcastle, Nottingham Pride, Nottingham and Sheffield.


North America


Barbados

The island nation held its first pride parade in July 2018. It attracted a diverse group, which included members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, allies of the community, tourists and at least one member of the local clergy who came out strongly in support of the LGBT movement.


Canada

Montreal's LGBTQ+ Pride Parade is held in mid-August and has taken place every year since 1979, when a group of 200 people commemorated New York City's 1969 Stonewall Riots with ''"Gairilla"'', a precursor to Montreal's gay pride parade celebrations. The festivities take place over eleven days, with events centered around the Gay Village, Montreal, Gay Village. Toronto's pride parade has been held yearly or every June since 1981; the first pride parade in Toronto was held in June 1981. In 2003, its activists help score a major victory 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. It is also one of the largest, attracting around 1.3 million people in 2009. The 38th pride parade in Toronto was held on June 24, 2018. Toronto hosted WorldPride in 2014. Ottawa's annual pride parade, Capital Pride (Ottawa), Capital Pride, is held in late August. Held yearly since 1986, Capital Pride's goal is to help educate and promote the issues and interests of the LGBTQ community. In 1998, the Capital Pride Week Committee received a letter of support from Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Vancouver Pride Festival, Vancouver's Pride Parade takes place each year during the August long weekend (Civic Holiday, BC Day falls on the first Monday of August in the province of British Columbia). The parade takes place in the downtown core with over 150 floats moving along Robson Street, Denman Street and along Davie Street. The parade has a crowd of over 150,000 attendees with well over half a million in attendance for the August 4, 2013 Pride Parade. New for 2013 are the permanently painted rainbow crosswalks in Vancouver's West End neighbourhood at Davie and Bute streets. The city of Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, in the Metro Vancouver area also hosts a Pride Festival, though on a much smaller scale.


Mexico

The first gay pride parade in
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
occurred in Mexico City in 1979, and it was attended by over a thousand people. Ever since, it has been held annually under different slogans, with the purpose of bringing visibility to sexual minorities, raising awareness about HIV/AIDS, fighting homophobia, and advocating for LGBT rights, including the legalization of civil unions, same-sex marriages, and LGBT adoption. In 2009, more than 350,000 people attended the gay pride march in Mexico City—100,000 more than the previous year. Guadalajara has also held their own Guadalajara Gay Pride every June since 1996, and it is the second largest gay pride parade in the country. Gay pride parades have also spread to the cities of León, Guanajuato, Puebla, Puebla, Puebla, Tijuana, Toluca, Cancun, Acapulco, Mérida, Yucatán, Mérida, Xalapa, Cuernavaca, Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Matamoros, Saltillo, Mazatlan, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, and Hermosillo, among others.


LGBT rights in Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago organised its first pride parade on 27 July 2018 at the Nelson Mandela Park in Port of Spain. Expressing his opinion on the march, Roman Catholic Archbishop Rev. Jason Gordon said: "TT is a democracy and as such members of society have a right to protest whenever they believe their rights are not being upheld or violated. (The) LGBT+ community has several areas where there is legitimate concern and these have to be taken seriously by the country and by the government and people of TT. "


United States

The annual New York City Pride March began in 1970, as did LA Pride, Los Angeles Pride, Chicago Pride, and San Francisco Pride that year. The New York City Pride March rivals the Sao Paulo Gay Pride Parade as the largest pride parade in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June. Pride parades would eventually greater media visibility and participation in the 1990s, which lead to US President Bill Clinton issuing Presidential Proclamation 7203, which declared June 1999 the first national Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. The 2011 New York City parade was held just two days after the legalization of gay marriage in the state of New York. Some other notable pride parades include Miami Beach Pride, LGBT culture in Boston, Boston Pride Parade, Rhode Island Pride in Providence, Chicago Pride Parade, PrideFest (Denver), Denver PrideFest, Columbus Pride, Cincinnati Pride, Albuquerque Pride, Atlanta Pride, Augusta Pride, Capital Pride (Washington, D.C.), Capital Pride, Charlotte Pride, Come Out With Pride (Orlando), Houston Gay Pride Parade, Indy Pride Festival, Jacksonville Pride, Nashville Pride, North Carolina Pride in Raleigh-Durham, Southern Decadence, New Orleans Decadence, Oklahoma City Pride and Festival, Orange County Pride, San Diego Pride, Long Beach (CA) LGBT Pride, Palm Springs Pride, Philly Pride, Pride Northwest#Portland LGBT Pride Festival & Parade, Portland Pride, Queens Pride, San Francisco Pride, Seattle Pride, St. Louis PrideFest, St. Pete Pride, Twin Cities Pride (Minneapolis/St. Paul) and Utah Pride Festival, among many others. In 2018, the small town of Homer, Alaska, held its first pride parade. In 2019 State of New York hosted the largest international LGBT pride celebration in history, known as Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots; as many as 4 million people are expected to attend in Lesbians in Manhattan, Manhattan alone. On June 28, 2020, on the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the Queer Liberation March Protest in New York City clashed with New York Police Department officers. Police alleged that this feud started as a result of a participant vandalizing an NYPD vehicle. Participants claimed tensions began when police attempted to arrest one protester, leading to them beginning to arrest other protestors. Participants also claimed that police pepper sprayed them and used tear gas. GLAAD condemned the police's use of force, comparing it to the actions of police in the original Stonewall riots. The most recent Pride parade in New York was held on June 26, 2022.


=Puerto Rico

= There are two cities in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico that celebrate pride parades/festivals. The first one began in June, 1991 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan; later in 2003 the city of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, Cabo Rojo started celebrating its own pride parade. The pride parade in Cabo Rojo has become very popular and has received thousands of attendees in the last few years. San Juan Pride runs along Ashford Avenue in the Condado area (a popular tourist district), while Cabo Rojo Pride takes place in Boquerón.


Oceania


Australia

Australia's first pride marches were held during a national Gay Pride Week in September 1973 organised by gay liberation groups in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane. The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras is the largest Australian pride event and one of the largest in the world. The inaugural event was held on 24 June 1978, and was organised by the Gay Solidarity Group and was intended to be a street festival, one of three events as part of a Day of International Gay Solidarity, produced in response to a call from the organisers of the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day, and highlighting local gay and lesbian rights issues. Following a police riot and assault at the end of the street festival, 53 were arrested; with over 120 more arrested at subsequent protests. The then Sydney Gay Mardi Gras subsequently became an annual event from 1979. The parade is held at night with ~12,000 participants on and around elaborate floats. Brisbane's Pride March began in July 1990, and is organised by Brisbane Pride. The March kicks off the Brisbane Pride Festival. Perth's Pride March was established in October 1990, by the newly formed WA Pride Collective (now WA Pride). Melbourne's Pride March, now part of the Midsumma Festival (1989-), was established in 1996. The event sees over 5000 participating in the Parade, and 20,000 lining Fitzroy Street, St Kilda. Adelaide's Pride March was established in 2003, on the anniversary of their first Pride March in 1973. Since then, the Adelaide Pride March has opened the annual Feast Festival.


New Zealand

Auckland's City Auckland Pride Festival holds its Pride March in February every year. In 2018, Jacinda Ardern became the first sitting New Zealand Prime Minister to walk in the Auckland Pride Parade. In March, Wellington also holds a pride parade during the Wellington Pride Festival. At Labour Weekend, October, Paekakariki holds its Pride Festival, A Rainbow in the Village, every year. It holds the unofficial title of having the World's Shortest Pride Parade.


South America


Argentina

Buenos Aires has held the March of Pride (Buenos Aires), March of Pride since 1992. Córdoba, Argentina, Cordoba has held pride parades since 2008, and Mendoza, Argentina, Mendoza since 2011. Argentina was one of the first countries in the Western Hemisphere to legalize gay marriage.


Brazil

The São Paulo Gay Pride Parade happens in Paulista Avenue, in the city of São Paulo, since 1997. The 2006 parade was named the biggest pride parade of the world at the time by ''Guinness World Records''; it typically rivals the New York City Pride March as the largest pride parade in the world. 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, Lésbicas, Bissexuais e Travestis e Transsexuais'', 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, and 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 second biggest Pride Parade in Brazil is Rio de Janeiro Gay Pride Parade, numbering about 2 million people, traditionally taking place in Zona Sul or Rio's most affluent neighborhoods between the city center and the world-famous oceanic beaches, which usually happens in the second part of the year, when it is winter or spring in the Southern Hemisphere, generally characterizing milder weather for Rio de Janeiro (about 15Celsius, °C in difference), except for occasional stormy cold fronts. The Rio de Janeiro Gay Pride Parade and its associated events are organized by the NGO Arco-Íris (Portuguese language, Portuguese for ''rainbow''). The group is one of the founders of the Associação Brasileira de Gays, Lésbicas, Bissexuais, Travestis e Transexuais (Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites (this word used as a synonym for transgender persons in Brazil) and Transsexuals). Other Pride Parades which happen in Greater Rio de Janeiro take place in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro's ex-capital in the times when Rio was the Brazilian capital and a separated Federal District (Brazil), Federal District, and Nova Iguaçu, where about 800,000 persons live and is located in the center of Baixada Fluminense, which compose all northern suburban cities of Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area numbering 3.5 million people. Other Southeast Region, Brazil, Southeastern Brazilian parades are held in Cabo Frio (Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro), Campinas (São Paulo (state), São Paulo), Vitória, Espírito Santo, Vitória (capital of Espírito Santo), and Belo Horizonte and Uberaba (Minas Gerais). South Region, Brazil, Southern Brazilian parades take place in Curitiba, Londrina, Florianópolis, Porto Alegre and Pelotas, and Center-West Region, Brazil, Center-Western ones happen in Campo Grande, Cuiabá, Goiânia and Brasília. Across Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeastern Brazil, they are present in all capitals, namely, in Salvador, Bahia, Salvador, Aracaju, Maceió, Recife, João Pessoa, Paraíba, João Pessoa, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Fortaleza, Teresina and São Luís, Maranhão, São Luís, and also in Ceará's Sertão, hinterland major urban center, Juazeiro do Norte. North Region, Brazil, Northern Brazilian parades are those from Belém, Macapá, Boa Vista, Roraima, Boa Vista and Manaus.


Chile

Chile held its first ever Pride parade on 2 July 2006.


Guyana

Guyana held its first pride parade in June 2018. It was the first in the Anglo-phone Caribbean and was successfully staged in spite of religious opposition.


Largest pride events

Although Crowd counting, estimating crowd size is an imprecise science, as of June 2019, New York City, New York, New York City's NYC Pride March is North America's biggest Pride parade. They had 2.1 million people in 2015, which rose to 2.5 million in 2016. In 2018, attendance was estimated around two million. For Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 up to five million took part over the final weekend, with an estimated four million in attendance at the parade. São Paulo, Brazil, Brazil's event, Parada do Orgulho GLBT de São Paulo, is South America's largest, and is listed by Guinness World Records as the world's largest Pride parade starting in 2006 with 2.5 million people. It broke the Guinness record in 2009 with four million attendees. It kept the title from 2006 to at least 2016. It had five million attendees in 2017. , it has three to five million each year. In 2019, it had three million. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, most Pride parades and events were either cancelled or held online. One of the exceptions was Taiwan Pride, held on October 31 with the country having contained the virus outside its borders thus becoming the largest Pride event in the world. ,
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
's Madrid Pride, Orgullo Gay de Madrid (MADO), is Europe's biggest; it had 3.5 million attendees when it hosted WorldPride in 2017. , the largest LGBTQ events include: * in Asia, it is
Taiwan Pride Taiwan Pride () is the annual LGBTQ 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 capital city of Taipei. The parade held in October ...
in
Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...
; * in the Middle East, it is Tel Aviv Pride in Israel; * in Oceania, it is
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
's Sydney Mardi Gras Parade; * in Africa, it is South Africa's Johannesburg Pride.


Best countries for pride events

This is the list of best countries for holding pride events. The best countries include the following. # # # # # # # # # # # #


Opposition

There is opposition to pride events both within LGBT and mainstream populations. Critics, such as Gay Shame, charge the parades with an undue emphasis on sex and sexual fetish, fetish-related interests, which they see as counterproductive to LGBT interests, and expose 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. Various critics have denounced what they view as a ''merchandization'' of Pride parades. Socially conservative, 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 displays often found in the parades, such as public nudity, BDSM paraphernalia, and other sexualized features. Within the academic community, there has been criticism that the parades actually set to strengthen homosexual-heterosexual divides and increase essentialist views. In some countries pride parades have been banned, including Russia, Turkey, and Poland.


See also

*Bear (gay culture) *Black gay pride *Circuit party * Disability Pride Parades * Dyke March * National pride * Peace flag * Rainbow flag (LGBT), Gay pride flag * Straight pride


References


Further reading

# Bell, David (1991). 'Insignificant Others; Lesbian and Gay Geographies'. Wiley Blackwell. # Brown, M (2012). 'Gender and Sexuality I; Intersectionality Anxieties'. Sage Journals. # Bruce, Katherine McFarland (2016). ''Pride Parades: How a Parade Changed the World''. New York University Press. . # Carter, David (2004). ''Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked The Gay Revolution''. St. Martin's Press. . # de Waal, Shaun; Manion, Anthony; Cameron, Edwin. (Editors) ''Pride: Protest and Celebration.'' . # Duberman, Martin (1993). ''Stonewall'' New York, Dutton. . # Johnston, Lynda (2009). ''Queering Tourism: Paradoxical Performances of Gay Pride Parades''. Routledge. . # Knopp, Larry (2007). 'From Lesbian and Gay to Queer and Geographies; Past, Prospects and Possibilities'. Ashgate Publishing Group. # Loughery, John (1998). ''The Other Side of Silence – Men's Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth-Century History''. New York, Henry Holt and Company. . # Lundberg, Anna (2007). 'Queering Laughter in the Stockholm Pride Parade'. International Institute for Social Geography, 52. # Marotta, Toby (1981). ''The Politics of Homosexuality''. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. . # Nash, Catherine and Bain, Alison (2007). ''Reclaiming raunch'? Spatializing queer identities at Toronto women's bathhouse events'. Taylor and Francis. # Stewart, Chuck (Editor) (2010). ''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of LGBT Issues Worldwide''. Greenwood Press: ABC-CLIO. . # Teal, Donn (1971). ''The Gay Militants''. New York, Stein and Day. .


External links


''Gay and Proud''
documentary film by Lilli Vincenz of the 1970 march in New York City
World Pride 2017
Madrid
List of Pride Events



Interpride
The International Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Coordinators {{DEFAULTSORT:Pride Parade Pride parades, LGBT events