Gay Pride events go online to mark 50th anniversary

PARIS: Fifty years on from the first Gay Pride march, the LGBT community and their supporters took many of their events online Saturday, responding to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic.

While some activists took to the streets to mark the event, much of the movement´s energy was channelled into Global Pride, a 24-hour online event broadcast live online.London Pride, one of the biggest events in the Gay Pride calendar, was one major victim of the new restrictions imposed by the pandemic.

Online events replaced it under the slogan: “Postponed, but still united”.But veteran campaigner Peter Tatchell, wearing a rainbow-coloured mask, led a group of 12 fellow activists to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the London Gay Liberation Front. “We are seeking to reclaim Pride as an event for LGBT+ human rights,” said the 68-year-old campaigner. Some events were broadcast on the giant screen in Piccadilly Square and London´s mayor, Sadiq Khan, tweeted his support. “We may be apart, but we are still united, as neighbours, as allies, and as one city.”

In Berlin, police estimated that around 3,500 people marched in temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted a message of support to the Global Pride event: “Be proud of yourself! No matter who you love, no matter where you live.”In Vienna, around 200 cars and motorbikes decked out in rainbow flags and inflatable unicorns paraded down the city´s famous Ringstrasse on Saturday afternoon.

Organisers said around 5,000 people turned out to watch the scaled-down event. Vienna´s Rainbow Parade, which normally attracts hundreds of thousands of people, was otherwise replaced by online events.