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The Rainbow Flag flies across the world in weekend Pride events
Rainbow flag
The global Pride party hits everywhere from San Fran via Paris to Bangalore
"In New York reports put the number of onlookers at over a million"
In San Francisco is was a star-studded affair celebrating the newly won right for same-sex couples to marry while in Berlin it was kicked off by a 95-year-old gay concentration camp survivor. Yes, it was the year's biggest Pride weekend and every city it hit celebrated in its own special way.
In the US, the San Francisco chapter of the Dykes on Bikes took to the road to fling bouquets into cheering crowds to celebrate this summer's first ever gay weddings in California this Saturday while celebrities like Cyndi Lauper and comedienne Margaret Cho provided the entertainment. In New York reports put the number of onlookers at over a million, all turning out to see another half a million walk in a parade kicked off by the State governor and Mayor Bloomberg, while in Europe Paris and Berlin - both of which cities have openly gay mayors - made the usual splash with a crowd that veered from cuties in their Speedos, via lesbian mums with push-chairs to the outer limits of drag queenery.
But it was in places that hadn't celebrated Pride before that the most impact was felt. New Delhi and Bangalore in India both celebrated their very first Pride events with hundreds of attendees despite the fact a motion to ban the marches was going through the courts at the time. Back in Europe, the first ever Czech Pride - presided over by Czech tennis legend Martina Navratilova - saw 20 injured when participants had fireworks thrown at them by bunches of neo-Nazis before the parade started. And in Bulgaria 60 skinheads were arrested for threatening the peace of the march.
