The world felt as though everything had turned rainbow on the weekend as the biggest pride celebrations took place.
From Madrid to New York City, from Toronto to San Francisco, millions of LGBTI+ people and their supporters marched, cheered and partied.
The start of World Pride in Madrid led the way on Friday night and continued across the weekend. More than two million people are expected to descend on the Spanish capital for the ten-day event which includes dance parties, art festivals, a designated Wold Pride village and the first ever Human Rights conference alongside the event.
The Madrid Summit is expected to be the biggest of its kind ever assembled. Running from June 26-28 at the University Autónoma of Madrid, the conference’s key topics will include LGBTQ education, health, workplace, culture, and politics.
Speaking with NBC Out, World Pride’s Communications Director Carlos Sánchez García-Plaza said the conference sets this World Pride ahead of all others.
“If I may say, Madrid Summit is something that I hope will mark a key difference from other regular Madrid Prides,” García-Plaza said to NBC Out.
“More than 140 speakers from five continents — LGBT activists, politicians, writers, etc. — will be in Madrid to analyze the situation of LGBT rights around the world. They will also discuss different ways to fight for real equality, especially in those countries where being LGBT is illegal, or can mean the death penalty.”
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined in on Canada’s largest Pride parade in Toronto on Sunday, where he took to the streets to march with members of the LGBT community.
He was joined by his wife and children and made many stops along the way … shaking hands and talking to reporters.
Although the New York City pride march was missing Hillary Clinton this year, the Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio attended along with the leader of the Democrats in the Senate Chuck Schumer and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“At a time when this state and this nation seems to be getting angrier and more fearful and talking about building walls, New York is still talking about building bridges,” said Gov. Cuomo.
The parade wound through Midtown into West Village and continued on for more than six hours and included moments of reflection of the Pulse Nightclub shooting and also a display of unity from the Black Lives Matter movement.
The messages behind San Francisco’s Pride March was of peace, love, and resistance as much of the parade turned political, mainly against the policies of the Trump presidency.
More than 200,000 people took part in the parade, which like NYC, lasted for six hours.
Parades took place in many other US cities across the weekend with Chicago, Washington DC and Minnesota drawing strong turnouts as part of Pride month.
Last Updated on Jun 27, 2017
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