(Hong Kong) Hong Kong showed its pride on the weekend with nearly 1,000 people marching through the streets carrying rainbow flags.

The size of the march illustrated the growing acceptance of gays in the semi-autonomous city. In 2005, only about 100 people participated and many hid their faces behind masks, fearful of reprisals.

This year local members of the LGBT community were joined by marchers from mainland China and Taiwan. The parade drew hundreds of onlookers as it made its way through the city center.

Last year, Hong Kong’s top court struck down the final portions of the law against sodomy that had been imposed a century ago under British rule.

The Court of Final Appeal said the portion of the law making it illegal to have public gay sex is unenforceable. Public gay sex was a crime with a maximum penalty of five years in prison. The case involved two men who were having sex in a private car on a deserted road.

Earlier, a 20-year-old Hong Kong gay man successfully challenged another law that punished men under 21 with up to life imprisonment who engaged in gay sodomy. The consensual age for heterosexual intercourse in Hong Kong was 16.

A local judge ruled in 2005 that the law infringed on the rights of gay men. The Hong Kong government also unsuccessfully appealed that ruling.