North America celebrates gay pride

Drag queens in knee-high boots, kids with two dads and New York City's first openly gay city council speaker were among hundreds of thousands attending gay pride parades across the nation and in Canada, weeks after a vicious attack on a popular gay singer and the 25th anniversary of the start of the AIDS epidemic. Tens of thousands of spectators lined Fifth Avenue on June 25 for the city's annual parade, withstanding intermittent rain and turning the route into a sea of rainbows with colorful floats and lavish costumes. "Everyone else has a chance to express their affection freely, and for one day in New York, you can be free and not feel ashamed or embarrassed," said 42-year-old Roberto Hermosilla, from Miami, attending his ninth gay pride parade. On San Francisco's Market Street, thousands of festively dressed people looked on as marching bands, dancers and floats bearing corporate logos streamed by. Tens of thousands lined the street to watch as drag queens, leather men and muscle boys moved to the beat of music blaring from sound trucks. Parade-goers brandished signs with slogans about gay marriage, AIDS, and discrimination. "It's to have a good time, but also to remember the issues out there," said Jane Woodman, 26, in San Francisco. "There's still a lot of work to be done," she said, noting the national debate raging over whether gays should have a legal right to marry. The New York parade marked the very public and triumphant return of singer Kevin Aviance, who rolled down Fifth Avenue atop a fake pachyderm and a circus-themed float just weeks after the drag queen was viciously beaten and suffered a broken jaw. Police have charged four young men with assaulting the artist while yelling anti-gay slurs. The theme of New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride March was "The Fight for Love and Life," but there was plenty of talk about hate following the Aviance attack. The New York Police Department said reports of anti-gay bias crimes totaled 25 through mid-June–compared with 19 over the same period in 2005. "A few hateful homophobes will not set us back," said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who marched in the parade. In January, Quinn became the first woman and first openly gay person to lead the council. In Ohio the day before, thousands gathered for the 25th Stonewall Columbus parade. Along the route, protesters held large signs reading, "Homo sex is sin" and "God abhors you," while a boy in blue tie-dye held up another: "2 Moms. 2 Dads. Too Cool." An estimated half million people lined up to watch Chicago's Gay Pride Parade. Marchers denounced an attempt by a conservative group to force a referendum on gay marriage. At least a dozen other cities in the US also celebrated gay pride that day. In Toronto, organizers of Canada's biggest pride parade estimated that about 1.2 million people lined Yonge Street for the march. The city's gay community sees the parade as a "shot across the bow" of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government which will hold a vote this fall on reopening the debate on gay marriage. The Conservatives hope to get enough votes to introduce a bill repealing same-sex marriage in Canada. Toronto's city clerk's office was busy all weekend processing marriage licenses for gay couples–mostly from the US. With no waiting time, couples picked up their licenses and immediately married.