It’s been almost two weeks since hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in San Francisco, New York City and other major cities around the world for the annual Gay Parades. The main focus of this year’s celebrations was concern about renewed restrictions on the rights of queer people and the rise in violence and hate crimes against them.
Christopher Street Day 2023: “Be their voice – and ours”
In Germany, too, the Christopher Street Day (CSD) took place last weekend in Cologne. With more than 1.5 million supporters, all of whom in colorful outfits and with rainbow flags commemorated the “Stonewall” riots and protested for the rights of queer people, it was the largest CSD parade in Europe to date. In the middle of the month, on July 22, 2023, Berlin will follow. “Be their voice – and ours” is the motto this year. Like Cologne, the parade in the state capital is one of the most important and largest CSD demonstrations in Europe.
But the queer festivities are now not only taking place in this country and in the USA, but also in numerous other cities around the world. More and more people dare to take to the streets for their sexual identity and the associated rights to set an example for tolerance, equality and diversity.
Pride parades around the world
The CSD took place for the 25th time in the Middle East this year. More than 150,000 supporters came to the parade to dance and celebrate on Tel Aviv’s seafront and on colorful floats. Despite massive internal political tensions, it was the country’s largest CSD to date, and the pictures from Tel Aviv went around the world.
But it wasn’t always as colourful, happy and harmonious as the parades around Pride Month seem to be nowadays. The LGBTQ+ community’s struggle for equality and tolerance has been exhausting, exhausting and has been going on for more than 54 years. The development of the CSD from the Stonewall uprisings in 1969 to today can be seen in the photo gallery above.
Source: “bpb”, “Rainbow Portal”