Undeterred by recent setbacks in the push to legalize same-sex marriage, tens of thousands of festively dressed people marched in parades around the US and Canada to celebrate the 35th anniversary of gay pride.
People celebrated in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta and Toronto on Sunday, though the event comes during a tough period for gay rights advocates. A bill to legalize same-sex marriage died this year in the California Assembly, and many US states have passed or are pursuing constitutional amendments outlawing gay marriage.
"I'm here to let the rest of the world know that we're here and we want to be seen," said Clarence Smelcer, 43, an AIDS activist watching the San Francisco parade. "We're part of everyone's lives and the parade is a wonderful way to show it."
Gay pride is a virtual holiday in San Francisco and thousands gathered early for the parade, including men in kilts and rainbow-colored wigs, cross-dressers in kimonos and heterosexual couples waving rainbow flags.
The parade opened with a blocks-long contingent of "Dykes on Bikes" -- lesbians dressed in leather driving loud motorcycles. Participants also included a bearded man in a wedding gown singing Madonna's Like a Virgin, a marching band and a group of parents and friends of lesbians and gays.
The annual pride parades commemorate the Stonewall uprising of 1969, a series of fights between gays and police in New York widely considered the beginning of the gay rights movement. The parades began the next year in 1970.
There were also subtle reminders in the celebrations on Sunday of the struggles ahead. Many in the San Francisco crowd wore stickers that read, "We All Deserve The Freedom to Marry."
"Anytime you have a big group of people screaming and hollering people will pay attention," said Jorge Vieto Jr, 27, who left Costa Rica because of discrimination against gays. "Marriage should be an equal opportunity, not a heterosexual right."
"People are more fired up this year," said George Estelle, who attended the Atlanta march and organized a float by Human Rights Campaign, a lobbying group. "They're angry that they feel there's been a lot of misrepresentation about them done this year during the elections."
In New York, men in button-down shirts outnumbered men in G-strings in a parade some said was less flamboyant -- but still politically relevant. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer were among the marchers.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number