A pride parade is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events sometimes also serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. Pride events occur in many urban areas in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and Australia. Most occur annually while some take place every June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, a pivotal moment in modern LGBTQ social movements. The parades seek to create community and honor the history of the movement. In 1970, pride and protest marches were held in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco around the first anniversary of Stonewall. The events became annual and grew internationally. In 2019, New York and the world celebrated the largest international Pride celebration in history: Stonewall 50 - WorldPride NYC 2019, produced by Heritage of Pride commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, with five million attending in Manhattan alone. The most recent New York pride event was NYC Pride March 2022, which occurred on June 26, 2022.
LGBT culture is a culture shared by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. It is sometimes referred to as queer culture, while the term gay culture may be used to mean "LGBT culture" or to refer specifically to homosexual culture.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in India have been evolving rapidly in recent years. However, Indian LGBT citizens face social and legal difficulties not experienced by non-LGBT persons. There are no legal restrictions against gay sex or gay expression. Gay couples can attain rights and benefits equal to married couples as a live-in couples as per a supreme court judgement, which offers some sembience of equality in a country where the vast majority of marriages are not registered with government.
Atlanta Pride, also colloquially called the Atlanta Gay Pride Festival, is a week-long annual lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) pride festival held in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1971, it is one of the oldest and largest pride festivals in the United States. According to the Atlanta Pride Committee, as of 2017, attendance had continually grown to around 300,000. Originally a pride held in June, Atlanta Pride has been held in October every year since 2008, typically on a weekend closest to National Coming Out Day.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in East Timor face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in East Timor, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex married couples.
Pune Pride is an annual LGBT pride parade that was first held in Pune, Maharashtra on 11 December 2011. It is the second Pride parade to be organized in the state of Maharashtra, after the Queer Azaadi Mumbai Pride March.
India has a limited culture for LGBTQIA people due to widespread stigma, stemming from colonialism, in the modern-day populace. However living conditions and media representation have been improving in recent years, especially in terms of representation of transgender people.
Humsafar Trust is an NGO in Mumbai which promotes LGBT rights. Founded by Ashok Row Kavi, Suhail Abbasi, and Sridhar Rangayan in 1994, it is one of the largest and most active of such organisations in India. It provides counselling, advocacy and healthcare to LGBT communities and has helped reduce violence, discrimination and stigma against them. Humsafar Trust is the convenor member of Integrated Network for Sexual Minorities (INFOSEM).
Queer Azaadi Mumbai Pride March, also called Queer Azaadi March and Mumbai pride march, is an annual LGBTQIA pride parade that is held in the city of Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra, India. It usually begins from Gowalia Tank ending at Girgaum Chowpatty. It, along with the Pride Week, is organized by Queer Azaadi Mumbai, a collective of organizations and individuals working for the rights of LGBTQIA community. The participants of the march include people from the LGBTQIH community as well their "straight allies", from India and outside. In addition to being a celebration of queer pride, the pride march and related events are a platform to ask for equal rights.
Delhi Queer Pride Parade is organised by members of the Delhi Queer Pride Committee every last Sunday of November since 2008. The queer pride parade is a yearly festival to honour and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their supporters. The parade usually runs from Barakhamba Road to Tolstoy Marg to Jantar Mantar.
New York City is home to one of the largest LGBTQ populations in the world and the most prominent. Brian Silverman, the author of Frommer's New York City from $90 a Day, wrote the city has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most powerful LGBT communities", and "Gay and lesbian culture is as much a part of New York's basic identity as yellow cabs, high-rise buildings, and Broadway theatre". LGBT travel guide Queer in the World states, "The fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled on Earth, and queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs". LGBT advocate and entertainer Madonna stated metaphorically, “Anyways, not only is New York City the best place in the world because of the queer people here. Let me tell you something, if you can make it here, then you must be queer.”
The Chennai Rainbow Pride March has been held by members of Tamil Nadu LGBTIQA+ communities every June since 2009. The pride march is organised under the banner Tamil Nadu Rainbow Coalition, which is a collective of LGBT individuals, supporters, and organizations working on human rights and healthcare for the LGBTQIA community. The Pride March occurs on the final Sunday of June every year. The Pride March is usually preceded by a month-long series of events organized by NGOs and organizations to inculcate awareness and support for the LGBTQ community, such as panel discussions, film screenings, and cultural performances. The Chennai Vaanavil Suyamariyadhai Perani a.k.a. Chennai Rainbow Self-Respect March is known for being inter-sectional in nature as it addresses issues with multiple axes such as caste, class, religion coupled with gender discrimination.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Kerala face legal and social difficulties not experienced by non-LGBT persons. However, Kerala has been at the forefront of LGBT issues in India after Tamil Nadu. It became one of the first states in India to establish a welfare policy for the transgender community and in 2016, proposed implementing free gender affirmation surgery through government hospitals. However, there is rising homophobic sentiment in the state recently due to anti-LGBT campaigns spearheaded by Muslim fundamentalist groups like Samastha and Jamaat-e-Islami.
Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk (KRPW) is the oldest pride walk in India and South Asia. The first march in Kolkata was organised on 2 July 1999. The walk was called The Friendship Walk. Kolkata was chosen as the first city in India to host the march owing to Kolkata's history of movements for human and Political Rights. Currently, Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk is organised by the Kolkata Rainbow Pride Festival (KRPF).
The Chandigarh LGBTQ Pride Walk is an annual march held as part of the "Garvotsava" pride week celebrations in Chandigarh, the capital city of the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana. The event aims to celebrate and bring together the LGBTQ community and its supporters.
Hyderabad Queer Pride has been celebrated on one of the Sundays in February since 2013. First held on 3 February 2013, Hyderabad became the 12th Indian city to join the Queer pride march bandwagon, fourteen years after the first Indian pride march was held in Kolkata. In 2015 it was renamed as Hyderabad Queer Swabhimana Pride, emphasising the self-respect and the acceptance of the community of themselves, as they are. In 2016 it was altered to Hyderabad Queer Swabhimana Yatra and has been retained since.
The Patna Pride March, held in Patna, India, is a civil rights march for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people to build communities and socialize. It has had three editions so far separated by seven years.
Bengaluru Namma Pride March is a queer pride march that is held annually in the city of Bengaluru in Karnataka, India, since 2008. The march is organised by a coalition called Coalition for Sex Workers and Sexuality Minority Rights (CSMR). The pride march is preceded by a month of queer related events and activities
Orange City LGBT Pride March or Nagpur Pride Parade is the pride march organised annually in Nagpur, Maharashtra. It was started in the year 2016. It is a festival to honour and celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people and their supporters.
The Gai Jatra Third Gender March is an LGBT March on the Newar festival Gai Jatra. The Blue Diamond Society organizes the march, which celebrates different forms of Pride. Blue Diamond Society organizes, and brings LGBT people to dance on the streets during this festival. Unlike other Pride marches in Nepal, it isn't seen as a political movement, but a celebration of an existing festival.
