Pride Parades in London, Toronto, Madrid, and Paris this year attracted millions of participants, and concern for the plight of oppressed gays and lesbians in ultra-homophobic countries was high on their agendas.
In London last Saturday, June 30, despite torrential rains and the discovery of a terrorist-planted car stuffed with explosives along the parade route through the city's West End, dozens of thousands of buoyant LGBTers -- led by the city's mayor -- marched to Trafalgar Square for a rally and concert featuring entertainment headliners.
Mayor Ken Livingstone, a member of the Labour Party left, appeared on the lead Pride float with openly gay actor John Barrowman. A leading man in many West End theater plays and musicals, and a popular figure on a wide range of BBC television shows, Barrowman -- who holds joint U.K.-U.S. citizenship -- is best known to U.S. audiences for his roles in the Brit import TV series "Dr. Who," the films "De-Lovely" and "The Producers," and the short-lived prime time U.S. TV soap operas "Titans" and "Central Park West."
Livingstone had London's ultra-modern City Hall draped in a huge rainbow flag to mark London Pride, and had his own special bus in the march decorated with rainbow flags, bows, and balloons.
In his remarks to the Pride rally, Livingstone -- who appeared on-stage with his two small children -- used his remarks to underscore the plight of LGBT people in other countries.
"This has become a good city for people of a different sexual orientation to live in.--we follow places like San Francisco and Copenhagen and Amsterdam -- but let's never forget these are just a few secure, isolated areas, in a world still awash with bigotry and hatred," the mayor said.
"We used to see a situation a hundred years ago where gays and lesbians would be beaten to death and the police would turn a blind eye. That is still the situation for tens and millions of our comrades and sisters and brothers around the face of the planet," Livingstone added, noting that "Peter Tatchell, who was in the march today, was viciously beaten by fascist thugs in Moscow, that's still the situation."
Tatchell, the founder and head of the militant British gay rights group OutRage, was severely assaulted in the attempt to hold a banned Moscow Gay Pride demonstration in front of the Russian capital's city hall on May 27 (see this reporter's May 31 article, "The Agony of Moscow Pride.")
Tatchell, who has been nominated as the British Green Party's parliamentary candidate for the university town of Oxford, told this reporter two weeks ago that he is still suffering vision problems, some memory loss, and cognition difficulties as a result of the beating to his head he received in Moscow.
"So let's celebrate Pride in London today," Livingstone went on to tell the Pride rally, "but let's do all the things we can for those people in other cities who still live in fear and oppression."
Shortly before the rally, Livingstone met with gay Iraqi refugee Ali Hili, coordinator of the London-based Iraqi LGBT group, which has a network of members and informants throughout Iraq. Iraqi LGBT has documented 350 murders of lesbian, gay, and transgendered Iraqis since the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq unleashed a lethal campaign of "sexual cleansing" by religious death squads, which are commanded by Islamic political formations courted by the U.S. and British occupiers. (The anti-gay reign of terror in Iraq has been regularly covered in these pages -- for this reporter's most recent report, see the May 3 article, "Iraqi Gay Activist Arrested, Tortured.")
In what Hili told this reporter was the first-ever formal participation by gay Iraqis in a Pride event anywhere in the world, the Iraqi LGBT group was invited by London Pride organizers to have a booth under a tent at the rally. The group distributed leaflets to the Pride marchers and rally participants, and sold T-shirts with the slogans, "Iraqi Gay and Proud -- Coming Soon, Baghdad Pride" and "You Can Save Lives, Iraqi LGBT Needs Your Help."
The all-volunteer organization currently maintains five safe-houses in Iraq for gays who have been forced underground after threats by the anti-gay religious death squads, which have now been integrated into the Iraqi police and the Interior Ministry by the U.S.-backed Iraqi government. "Iraqi LGBT":http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/ was forced to close three other safe-houses in southern Iraq in May due to lack of funds.
"We had over 14 of our members participating in this year's Pride," Hili told me. "Our group attracted lots of media attention, and our members gave many interviews to journalists."
Hili added that, "I had a very warm welcome from Mayor Livingstone, who spoke about the terrible situation that his government and the U.S. government caused because of the awful and illegal war in Iraq." Livingstone promised to take up the issue of the terror campaign against Iraqi gays, Hili said.
The London Pride rally was also addressed by two members of the new British government headed by Labour Party Prime Minister Gordon Brown, successor to Tony Blair.
Openly lesbian MP Angela Eagle, who was named last week by Brown as junior Treasury Minister, was introduced to the crowd by the Labour Party's new Deputy Leader in the House of Commons, Harriet Harman, who has also been named Minister for Women. Harman's ministerial portfolio is also expected to include equality issues, including gay rights.
"This is my first public appearance as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and this is the first public appearance of our new treasury minister Angela Eagle," Harman told the Pride rally. "I think we should celebrate her appointment here today," she added, calling Eagle "my sister in government."
Harman, who is considered a feminist, and has been identified with the Labour Party's left wing, promised the Pride rally that the Brown government would initiate "new work in schools to tackle homophobia, more work within the police and the criminal justice system to prevent and deter homophobic crime."
But doubts have been raised about new Prime Minister Brown's commitment to full gay equality by gay rights campaigners and the gay press.
Last Wednesday, June 27, OutRage's Tatchell issued a statement saying, "Gordon Brown has missed more gay equality votes in parliament than any other MP -- in 13 out of 14 votes on gay equality in the House of Commons, Mr. Brown has not bothered to turn up and vote."
Tatchell added that, "While I doubt he [Brown] is homophobic, he has failed to make any serious effort to vote in favor of gay law reform."
A longer version of this article, covering the Pride Parades in London, Toronto, Madrid, and Paris, is available here.
Pride Parades in London, Toronto, Madrid, and Paris this year attracted millions of participants, and concern for the plight of oppressed gays and lesbians in ultra-homophobic countries was high on their agendas.
In London last Saturday, June 30, despite torrential rains and the discovery of a terrorist-planted car stuffed with explosives along the parade route through the city's West End, dozens of thousands of buoyant LGBTers -- led by the city's mayor -- marched to Trafalgar Square for a rally and concert featuring entertainment headliners.
Mayor Ken Livingstone, a member of the Labour Party left, appeared on the lead Pride float with openly gay actor John Barrowman. A leading man in many West End theater plays and musicals, and a popular figure on a wide range of BBC television shows, Barrowman -- who holds joint U.K.-U.S. citizenship -- is best known to U.S. audiences for his roles in the Brit import TV series "Dr. Who," the films "De-Lovely" and "The Producers," and the short-lived prime time U.S. TV soap operas "Titans" and "Central Park West."
Livingstone had London's ultra-modern City Hall draped in a huge rainbow flag to mark London Pride, and had his own special bus in the march decorated with rainbow flags, bows, and balloons.
In his remarks to the Pride rally, Livingstone -- who appeared on-stage with his two small children -- used his remarks to underscore the plight of LGBT people in other countries.
"This has become a good city for people of a different sexual orientation to live in.--we follow places like San Francisco and Copenhagen and Amsterdam -- but let's never forget these are just a few secure, isolated areas, in a world still awash with bigotry and hatred," the mayor said.
"We used to see a situation a hundred years ago where gays and lesbians would be beaten to death and the police would turn a blind eye. That is still the situation for tens and millions of our comrades and sisters and brothers around the face of the planet," Livingstone added, noting that "Peter Tatchell, who was in the march today, was viciously beaten by fascist thugs in Moscow, that's still the situation."
Tatchell, the founder and head of the militant British gay rights group OutRage, was severely assaulted in the attempt to hold a banned Moscow Gay Pride demonstration in front of the Russian capital's city hall on May 27 (see this reporter's May 31 article, "The Agony of Moscow Pride.")
Tatchell, who has been nominated as the British Green Party's parliamentary candidate for the university town of Oxford, told this reporter two weeks ago that he is still suffering vision problems, some memory loss, and cognition difficulties as a result of the beating to his head he received in Moscow.
"So let's celebrate Pride in London today," Livingstone went on to tell the Pride rally, "but let's do all the things we can for those people in other cities who still live in fear and oppression."
Shortly before the rally, Livingstone met with gay Iraqi refugee Ali Hili, coordinator of the London-based Iraqi LGBT group, which has a network of members and informants throughout Iraq. Iraqi LGBT has documented 350 murders of lesbian, gay, and transgendered Iraqis since the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq unleashed a lethal campaign of "sexual cleansing" by religious death squads, which are commanded by Islamic political formations courted by the U.S. and British occupiers. (The anti-gay reign of terror in Iraq has been regularly covered in these pages -- for this reporter's most recent report, see the May 3 article, "Iraqi Gay Activist Arrested, Tortured.")
In what Hili told this reporter was the first-ever formal participation by gay Iraqis in a Pride event anywhere in the world, the Iraqi LGBT group was invited by London Pride organizers to have a booth under a tent at the rally. The group distributed leaflets to the Pride marchers and rally participants, and sold T-shirts with the slogans, "Iraqi Gay and Proud -- Coming Soon, Baghdad Pride" and "You Can Save Lives, Iraqi LGBT Needs Your Help."
The all-volunteer organization currently maintains five safe-houses in Iraq for gays who have been forced underground after threats by the anti-gay religious death squads, which have now been integrated into the Iraqi police and the Interior Ministry by the U.S.-backed Iraqi government. "Iraqi LGBT":http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/ was forced to close three other safe-houses in southern Iraq in May due to lack of funds.
"We had over 14 of our members participating in this year's Pride," Hili told me. "Our group attracted lots of media attention, and our members gave many interviews to journalists."
Hili added that, "I had a very warm welcome from Mayor Livingstone, who spoke about the terrible situation that his government and the U.S. government caused because of the awful and illegal war in Iraq." Livingstone promised to take up the issue of the terror campaign against Iraqi gays, Hili said.
The London Pride rally was also addressed by two members of the new British government headed by Labour Party Prime Minister Gordon Brown, successor to Tony Blair.
Openly lesbian MP Angela Eagle, who was named last week by Brown as junior Treasury Minister, was introduced to the crowd by the Labour Party's new Deputy Leader in the House of Commons, Harriet Harman, who has also been named Minister for Women. Harman's ministerial portfolio is also expected to include equality issues, including gay rights.
"This is my first public appearance as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and this is the first public appearance of our new treasury minister Angela Eagle," Harman told the Pride rally. "I think we should celebrate her appointment here today," she added, calling Eagle "my sister in government."
Harman, who is considered a feminist, and has been identified with the Labour Party's left wing, promised the Pride rally that the Brown government would initiate "new work in schools to tackle homophobia, more work within the police and the criminal justice system to prevent and deter homophobic crime."
But doubts have been raised about new Prime Minister Brown's commitment to full gay equality by gay rights campaigners and the gay press.
Last Wednesday, June 27, OutRage's Tatchell issued a statement saying, "Gordon Brown has missed more gay equality votes in parliament than any other MP -- in 13 out of 14 votes on gay equality in the House of Commons, Mr. Brown has not bothered to turn up and vote."
Tatchell added that, "While I doubt he [Brown] is homophobic, he has failed to make any serious effort to vote in favor of gay law reform."
A longer version of this article, covering the Pride Parades in London, Toronto, Madrid, and Paris, is available here.