Thousands of Revelers Parade for Gay Pride in Europe

[CShine]

BERLIN (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of revelers wearing everything from full Victorian garb to skimpy leather outfits and feather boas celebrated gay pride in Germany's capital Saturday in one of Europe's largest parades marking Christopher Street Day.

To the sound of thumping techno music, Berlin's openly gay Mayor Klaus Wowereit led 53 colorful floats in the 12th annual celebration commemorating the start of the gay rights movement in New York's Greenwich Village in 1969.

Police estimated that about 200,000 people snaked their way from the chic Kurfuerstendamm boulevard to the landmark Victory Column, while organizers said the crowd swelled beyond 500,000.

Wowereit told the cheering crowd that while the parade was "fun and colorful," the gay community still was marginalized. "We must fight against that," he said.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBC3GO5YVD.html

[joeybee12]

1. Wish I were there! One of these days I'm going to summer in Europe

and hit all the celebrations in each city!

It's on my list of things to do before I die!

[Kellanved]

2. Berlin was pretty cool

As an supporting bystander I have to say: great event. The lord mayor and the Federal Minister of Justice were speaking, the whole downtown district was closed off.

Parties continued into the morning (not just the early morning either); all in all it was quite promising. The main sad event was the Warsaw parade joining in, as they got banned in Poland.

Ohh: definetly 500,000: I've seen Berlin Parties from 10,000 to 2,000,000: this was more than 200,000 attending.


(can't post any other pictures: most are not "clean")