Gay Pride Parade in Tel Aviv Attracts Tens of Thousands of Participants

Israel's annual Gay Pride parade attracted tens of thousands of people in Tel Aviv on Friday.

Some 30,000 tourists had arrived for the event in Israel's coastal commercial capital, the municipality estimated, and joined many times that number of revellers dancing aboard floats blasting out electronic music.

China's First Gay Pride Event Will Lack the Fanfare
China's first Gay Pride event, organised by Shanghai's English-speaking expatriates, has been quietly celebrating homosexuality this week with no hint of a parade or advertising hype.

Tel Aviv had painted pavements with bright colours and lit up its headquarters with a rainbow flag several days before the celebrations.

The city also welcomed transsexual singer Dana International, winner of the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, as a guest of honour for Tel Aviv's 16th annual Gay Pride parade.

Drag queens and civil rights activists joined gays, many of them provocatively dressed, as well as heterosexuals who took part in the parade.

Gay Marriage at UK Mission Not Allowed by Hong Kong
UK officials have said that the Hong Kong government has refused to allow same-sex couples to marry at the British consulate in the city.

"We came to be here, to show that we are proud," said Maor Rozdoba, a 25-year-old local.

"We will still want to establish families and to get married, and to be like everybody else, with equal rights," she said.

Unprotected Sex Among the Gays on the Rise
In the United States the gays prefer to find out whether their partner’s HIV Status. This is the prevention method used rather than use protection to prevent catching the disease.

Israel is widely seen as having liberal gay rights policies, despite the hostility shown towards homosexuals, particularly men, from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

Israel repealed a ban on consensual same-sex sexual acts in 1988.

Source-AFP