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PrideWide
It’s cold
and damp out there (or out here in the UK at
least). So, to warm your cockles,
Martin
Lewis casts his eyes back to a few
summer Pride events.
Summer’s a
long and distant memory (for those of us who
experienced one at all!). The Gay Pride
season is over and Winter Festivals have
begun. For anyone suffering from the cold,
here’s something warmer to feast your eyes
at.
Hong Kong
On 1
November, Hong Kong saw around 1,800 people
take part in the Chinese Administrative
Region’s second gay pride parade, “Be Proud!
Be Yourself!”. The number doubled last
year’s turnout.
Participants
of the hour-long march, who included
visitors from mainland China and Taiwan,
carried rainbow flags, banners and posters,
and sang, danced and chanted.
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Taiwan Pride, 2009 |
The mainland
provinces of Guizhou and Shandong, and the
cities of Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou,
Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tianjin, were all
represented at the event.
During the
closing parade in Chater Garden, which
featuring music and dance performances,
pride-goers joined hands, raised them in the
air and chanted, “Gay and straight living in
harmony, equality and mutual respect.”
Meanwhile,
following a successful campaign earlier this
year to have same-sex couples covered under
Hong Kong’s domestic-violence law,
gay-rights activists now plan to push for
LGBT protection in anti-discrimination law.
Taipei’s seventh annual Gay Pride Parade was
held on 31 October. Over 25,000 people
showed up to march in the parade, asking for
recognition of equal rights and same-sex
marriage. The parade also included
supporters from Hong Kong, Japan, and South
East Asian countries.
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Taipei Pride, 2009 |
Taipei’s Gay Pride parade is the largest in
Asia. Last year’s march drew over 18,000
supporters.
China
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Shanghai Pride, 2009 |
According to
the New York Times:
It was shortly after the “hot body”
contest and just before a painted
procession of Chinese opera singers took
the stage that the police threatened to
shut down
China’s
first gay pride festival.
The authorities had already forced the
cancellation of a play, a film screening
and a social mixer, so when an irritated
plainclothes officer arrived at the
Saturday afternoon gala and flashed his
badge, organizers feared the worst.
After some fraught negotiations, Hannah
Miller, an American teacher who helped
put together the weeklong festival,
agreed to limit the crowds, keep the
noise down and, most important, “not let
anything happen that might embarrass the
government,” she explained after
returning from the impromptu sidewalk
meeting. “That was a close call,” she
said. Crisis averted, the party
continued.
France
Just
’cos the French are gorgeous!
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Eighth Parisian Pride, 2009 |
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