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Gay Pride News: Three thousand Gay Pride supporters have marched through the streets of Jerusalem, in a day which passed without serious incident.
By: Nigel Robinson
Jerusalem Gay Pride: "a march of mourning"
Jerusalem Gay Pride: "a march of mourning"
Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem - but "donkey parade" banned
Fearful of violence from anti-gay organisations, 1,500 police officers were employed to protect the Gay Pride Parade – in effect one policeman for every two marchers.
The Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade is usually held in June, but was held back this year to commemorate the first anniversary of a shooting attack on the Bar Noar gay youth centre in Tel Aviv which left two people dead, and fifteen others wounded.
The perpetrator of the fatal shooting has still not been found.
“It’s one year later, and we still have no answers,” one participant told the Jerusalem Post.
“We came to march today both to remember those who were killed and wounded in that attack, but also to show their attacker that we’re still here.”
Yonatan Gher, the Gay Pride Parade’s organiser told news agency Associated Press: “This is first of all a march of mourning, and at the end we will try to put the mourning behind us and look forward to the coming year, and declare tonight the beginning of Gay Rights year."
Groups of ultra-Orthodox Jewish protestors gathered at the start and end of the 1.5 mile-long route, holding signs that read, “Sick perverts, get out of Jerusalem” and "Holy Land, not Homo Land."
Other protestors called the march an “abomination” and a “beast parade”.
One group, led by Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor, Yitzhak Pindrus, carried cardboard cut-outs of donkeys to highlight what they considered to be the “bestial” nature of the Gay Pride Parade.
An earlier application to stage a protest “donkey parade” with real animals had been turned down by the authorities.
