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NEW YORK (AP) - Millions of people, spread across
different cities in North America and Europe, gathered to celebrate gay
pride over the weekend.
In New York, three dozen gay couples celebrated their same-sex
partnerships Sunday to kick off the city's annual gay pride parade, a
celebration of flamboyant costumes and floats.
''We'd like to be recognized as a couple,'' said Sheneen Ellis,
wearing a white veil and mini-dress decorated with tiny red rhinestones,
as she stood with her partner, Alona Hartnett, dressed in white slacks and
jacket.
They were surrounded by their five children as two ministers and a
rabbi blessed them in a ceremony at the entrance to Central Park just
before the Heritage of Pride parade.
''Two mothers are better than having only one,'' read a sign
carried by one of the children, 10-year-old Calhea Johnson. ''I love mommy
and mommy.''
The parade included lesbians on motorcycles, a rainbow arch of
balloons and a top-down convertible carrying veterans of the 1969
Stonewall riots, in which patrons of a gay bar in Greenwich Village fought
back against a police raid.
The parade to mark the event has grown over the years to a
colourful pageant drawing hundreds of thousands of participants and
spectators, and has been replicated in cities around the world.
On Sunday, as many as 800,000 people flooded Toronto's downtown
core for the city's annual gay pride parade. Federal Health Minister Alan
Rock and Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman joined the parade procession, which
included drag queens, people dressed as sexy cowboys and transsexuals
decked out in glitter, feathers and platform-shoes.
Paris and Berlin celebrated gay pride on Saturday with rollicking
parades. At the center of the festivities were the cities respective
mayors, both openly gay.
About one million people dressed in everything from feathered boas
to skintight leather gathered in San Francisco for that city's 31st Annual
Pride Parade and Celebration, California's largest public event.
''This is a great opportunity to raise the visibility of the gay
community,'' said city Supervisor Mark Leno, who is gay and served as one
the parade's five marshals.
But the drag queens in sequined dresses and feathers and young men
in tight shorts were a bit much for some tourists.
''It's enlightening,'' said Sally Christenson, 48. ''I was naive. I
never thought people would expose themselves to this extent. You don't see
this in Minnesota.''
In Chicago, organizers expected approximately 350,000 to attend
what has become one of the largest parades in the city.
''It's once a year that we can get out and be happy,'' said Greg
Trent, 32, of Joliet, a community southwest of the city. ''We can step out
into the street and stand up for our rights. Everyone supports us. I love
it.''
But Yvonne Ricciotti, 29, said the event is becoming too
commercial.
''I think people are forgetting what it's about. It's about
Stonewall. It's about standing up for our rights. People are turning it
into a big party and the politicians are here just to get our vote.''
In Atlanta, thousands of people, including several mayoral
candidates, participated in the city's 31st Gay Pride celebration, which
wrapped up Sunday with a parade along the city's main artery, Peachtree
Street.
''Events like this help increase our visibility and help to let
people know that gay people do exist, that we're not deviants,'' Benson
Cohen said. ''We don't just exist in the shadows.''
Organizer Calvin Johnson agreed: ''We contribute a lot to the city.
We're not here to force anything on them, we just want to be a part of the
society and be accepted for who we are.''
The New York marriage ceremonies were not legally binding but
served as a rallying point for activists who would like to see same-sex
couples accorded the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.
''Women who want to marry and men who want to marry should have the
same rights that Deni and I have enjoyed,'' city public advocate Mark
Green, who is running for mayor, told the couples as he stood with his
wife of 24 years, Deni Frand.
New York City's domestic partnership law gives public employees who
are same-sex couples the same health benefits as married couples, along
with privileges such as visiting rights in city institutions like
hospitals and jails.
Vermont is the only U.S. state that offers gay couples the option of
civil unions, which give them the same rights as married couples.
Legislation to legalize homosexual unions has been introduced in New York
state but has never passed.
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