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(London) More than 300,000 people
celebrated LGBT Pride in the British capital on Saturday with a massive
parade. The march was culmination of two weeks of pride
events.
As gay civil rights groups, men in leather, club
boys and drag queens were getting ready to set off from Trafalgar Square they
had a surprise visit from Bob Geldof.
His Live 8 concert to draw attention to poverty
in African was just getting under way across town and Geldof had a message for
gays.
"Between what you people are doing and the people in the park are doing and
the people around the world, we are going to stop one vast oppression of a vast
minority - that's what we are going to do today," Geldof told marchers.
Elton John used Pride day to urge the Blair
government to take a stand against worldwide homophobia.
"I want our government, which has presided
over many positive changes for gay people here in the UK - an equal age of
consent, partnership rights, the abolition of the rightly reviled Clause 28 - to
ensure that ending violations of gay people's fundamental human rights around
the world becomes an explicit issue in its diplomatic relations with other
countries," he wrote in an op-ed piece for The Observer.
Of Gay Pride Day, Elton wrote that the there is a
link between poverty and hate.
"The sheer force of our numbers will
ultimately help to end the suffering from extreme poverty and extreme prejudice
all over the world.
"There are many parts of the world where
such a celebration could not take place, because basic human rights are not
respected and people face threats, attacks, prosecution and even possible
execution just because of their sexuality." "I
strongly believe that when thousands of us refuse to look away and stay silent
we make a difference to what politicians do and say."
Saturday's parade featured more than 40 floats.
Marchers made
their way along Park Lane, through Westminster, past the Houses of Parliament
and along Victoria Embankment.
At a rally following the parade, actor Sir Ian McKellen,
London mayor Ken Livingstone and gay rights activist Peter Tatchell addressed
the crowd.
©365Gay.com 2005
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