The Prague Pride parade passed through Prague, there are 40,000 people in Letná
According to the organizers, about 40,000 people arrived in Letenské sady as part of the Prague Pride sexual minority march. During the parade, participants commemorated the victims of the recent shooting and Orlando, USA. According to the police, the whole march through the center of Prague went without incident.
The participants started meeting on Wenceslas Square before noon, most of them brought with them rainbow flags and other symbols of the homosexual community, some came in extravagant countries. People also adorned themselves with rainbow make-up, equipped with wigs, Hawaiian wreaths or balloons. There are ten allegorical cars in the parade, including cars from the US Embassy or Amnesty International.
The biggest star of this year’s parade is Omar Sharif junior, the grandson of the famous Egyptian actor of the same name. During the Arab Spring in 2012, he declared his homosexual orientation and therefore had to leave his native Egypt for his safety. “Since then, he has not returned, traveling the world, talking about his gay activism and giving other people the strength to do the same,” said festival spokeswoman Bohdana Rambousková.
A “pram ride” set out in the parade. It is mainly a family with children in turquoise T-shirts who want to support the forthcoming amendment to the Registered Partnership Act. This could allow the adoption of a partner’s child in a registered union.
For the first time, also political
For the first time, the Solidarity Forever Bloc participates in the parade, which consists of the political organizations Idealisté.cz, Socialist Solidarity and the Young Social Democrats. According to the bloc, Prague Pride should not be an apolitical festival, its members warn that there is still a long way to go to equalize LGBT people.
Some politicians are also in the procession, including the Ministry of Regional Development Karla Šlechtová or the Mayor of Prague Adriana Krnáčová.
In the upper part of the square under the statue of St. About a dozen Christian activists gathered in Václav. With large crosses in their hands, they protested against the action of sexual minorities and emphasized the importance of the classical family.
From Wenceslas Square, he continued his procession through Na Příkopě, Revoluční streets and across Dvořák’s embankment to Čech Bridge, where the participants honored the memory of 49 people who shot the attacker in a gay club in Orlando, USA. Then the march headed to Letná, where another program will follow until the evening. After 22:00, the participants will move to the Chemistry Gallery in Holešovice.
The main theme of this year’s Prague Pride is love, but it also addresses other issues. “We focus on safe love and AIDS prevention, as well as on the family, which is a traditional outcome of love,” said festival director Kateřina Saparová.
The festival has been held in the Czech Republic since 2011. The first years were accompanied by conservative protests, according to which the event was tasteless and obscene. In the following years, however, the protests weakened. Today, the Committee on the Defense of Parental Rights, together with the Young Christian Democrats, is organizing a Family Day.