CSD
Colorful and loud: Cologne Pride parade moves through Cologne
A Statue of Liberty in Cologne. photo
© Roberto Pfeil/dpa
According to the organizers, around 60,000 participants are moving through Cologne this year. A federal minister also mingled with the visitors to the parade.
Hundreds of thousands of people followed the Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade on Sunday come to Cologne. According to the organizers, the demonstration, with around 60,000 participants, moved through the city center at a snail’s pace in the scorching heat. With around 220 registered groups, the parade was longer than ever. Tens of thousands followed the colorful and noisy spectacle on the side of the road.
“We have already achieved a lot, but we are not there yet,” said Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) at the start. There is still a lot to do in the fight for equal rights and against queer hostility.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) called on all visitors to take care of each other because of the hot and humid weather with temperatures above 30 degrees. Participants and spectators should drink enough and stay in the shade as much as possible. The German Weather Service (DWD) has issued a heat warning for Cologne, among other things.
The Cologne CSD is one of the largest events for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) community in Europe. In Germany, only the CSD in Berlin is of a similar size. In many places, the CSD is reminiscent of events in New York in 1969: At that time, police officers stormed the “Stonewall Inn” bar on Christopher Street and broke up a multi-day uprising by gays, lesbians and transsexuals.
CSD