An estimated 600,000 people partied in the streets of Berlin on Saturday, celebrating gay pride and marking the annual Christopher Street Day. The festivities included a colorful parade through the heart of the city.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched and danced through the streets of Berlin on Saturday, taking part in the annual Christopher Street Day and this year's theme, 'Normal is Different.' More than 50 floats traveled through the streets of the capital, ending at the Brandenburg Gate. Berlin's Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who is openly gay, said that homosexuals are still fighting for equality. "There is still today daily attacks and discrimination against homosexuals," Wowereit told the German news agency dpa. As soccer fever grabs Germany, the World Cup theme found its way into the parade, with participants on the German Football Association float handing out pink cards, instead of football's red and yellow cards. The 32nd annual gay pride event in Berlin commemorates the start of the gay rights movement in New York's Greenwich Village in 1969. On June 28 of that year, customers at the Stonewall Inn on New York's Christopher Street - who were mostly drag queens and young prostitutes - rebelled against a police raid.
DPA
