By GOH VERN JAN 

Joy and pride. These emotions filled the atmosphere as people danced, sang, cheered and marched. Accompanying their bright moods were huge rainbow flags which enhanced the festivity of the event. This vibrant celebration is no ordinary occasion. It holds special significance as it celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) culture and at times serves as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. Welcome to the extraordinary world of the gay pride parade.

The gay pride parade advocates three main concepts: LGBT people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity is a gift and sexual orientation as well as gender identity are innate and cannot be deliberately changed.

The word pride is used as an antonym for shame which has been used to oppress LGBT people throughout history. In this case, pride is an affirmation of one’s self and the community as a whole. Symbols of LGBT pride include the LGBT rainbow flag and the Greek lambda symbol.


Burst of color: A man flaunts a rainbow flag at Gay Pride New York.

Most gay pride parades take place annually around June to commemorate the Stonewall riots which is a crucial moment in the modern LGBT rights movement. In 1969, gay people in The Stonewall Inn fought back instead of backing down to unconstitutional raids by New York police. Despite its violence, this event gave the underground community its first sense of communal pride.

Major cities around the world today host Gay Pride Celebrations. These cities include New York, Chicago, Houston, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Toronto.

New York City celebrates Gay Pride for a full week each June. Pride celebrations typically centers around five events held over the entire fourth week of June (from June 18 to June 26). These five events include The Rally, PRIDEfest, The March, The Dance on the Pier and Rapture on the River. They occur in the West village, very close to the city’s other gay-popular neighborhoods like Chelsea and the East Village.

The gay pride parades in New York take on a festive or even Mardi Gras-like character. They frequently involve floats, dancers, drag queens and amplified disco beats. These parades also include political and educational contingents such as local politicians and marching groups from LGBT institutions of all kinds. Other typical parade participants include local LGBT-friendly churches like the Metropolitan Community Churches.


Proud to be different: People marching in the Gay Pride Parade in New York City.


Greenery: A participant goes with the theme of nature.


Glamorous march: Participants dressed in blue march with pride.


Dazzling display: A participant shines with a variety of exotic colors.

In New York’s 2009 celebration, a faux Liza Minnelli, who lip-synched “New York, New York”, was spotted in a slinky dress and spiky wig atop the Stonewall Inn float. The LGBT Community Center’s float was sponsored by the Broadway musical “Shrek”. Parade organizers claimed as many as 500,000 participated. That amount of participants was difficult to verify but many thousands marched or lined Fifth Avenue to watch.

Danielle Staub of the Bravo reality show "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" marched in heels that rivaled a drag queen's and claimed that gay people deserve the right to marry. “My two marriages didn't last as long as most of the gay community's partnerships,” she noted.

In November 2010, thousands of people cheered through the streets of Delhi in a lively celebration for the first gay pride parade since gay sex was made legal in India.

Under a huge rainbow flag, to the sound of drums, whistles and horns, 2,000 gay activists and supporters dressed in feather face masks shouted slogans and waved placards as they marched through the capital of this still sexually conservative country.


Joyous occasion: Participants taking part in the gay pride parade in New Delhi.

The parade brought traffic to a stop in the commercial heart of the city, leaving perplexed drivers watching in astonishment as kissing male couples, dancing transsexuals in bright pink skirts and thousands of rainbow flags went past.

Still, opposition of such a parade is inevitable. In 2010, Serbian riot police were summoned to control protesters who hurled Molotov cocktails and stun grenades to try to disrupt a gay pride march in downtown Belgrade. According to officials, more than 140 people were hurt and more than 200 were arrested.

The Catholic Church’s highest official in Jerusalem sternly criticized Israeli authorities for permitting a gay pride march through the streets of the Holy Land. Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal urged homosexuals to “leave Jerusalem to her pilgrims and faithful,” further adding that “this city has suffered enough wounds and humiliation.”

With or without antagonism, gay pride parades are ultimately here to stay. As these celebrations continue year after year, the gay community’s message is clear. “Today is about saying that we are gay and we are proud. We are not going anywhere, we are a part of society, and today we can celebrate being different,” said Amit Agrawal, one of the New Delhi’s parade organizers.