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Millions turn out to celebrate Pride in Brazil's biggest city
Sao Paulo pride
Sao Paulo Pride the biggest gay gathering in the history of the world!
"Official reports have it that robberies were up an estimated 78% on last year"
With so many gay Brazilians living in the UK, it's amazing that there are still enough to turn out for Pride in Sao Paulo to make it the biggest gay gathering in the history of the world.
Numbers were estimated at around three and a half million by official stewards while organisers put the number much higher at around five million, around 25% of the entire population of the city. It was also noted that when the Pope turned up in the city last year to denounce homosexuality in one of the most Catholic countries on earth, an estimated million people turned up to see him.
The official parade which weaved its way down one of Sao Paolo's main thoroughfares, Avenida Paulista, included a menagery of drag queens, dykes on and off bikes and men in very skimpy outfits. But it was not all fun and feathers. Official reports have it that robberies were up an estimated 78% on last year, while some partiers complained that the 1,600 police manning the event were reluctant to step in even when robberies took place right next to them.
Most gay nightclubs had decided not to have floats in this year's parade and observers reported what seemed to be record levels of drink and drug abuse among the revellers. One 56-year-old man was even taken to hospital having been crushed by a float. He is reported to have had a leg amputated. Ironic when the parade was to mark opposition to violence as well as discrimination.
Organisers, however, are still proclaiming Sao Paulo's pride celebrations as a massive success and an event which is becoming more and more an instrinsic part of the country's economy, attracting tourists from all over the world.
