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People Throng Sydney Streets to Watch Gay Pride Parade

by VR Sreeraman on Mar 2 2008 1:11 PM

Some 300,000 people lined the streets of Sydney on Saturday night to watch the largest gay pride parade in the Asia Pacific as the event marked its 30th anniversary, organisers said.

Marchers dressed as sequined flight attendants, nuns and beach lifesavers formed part of the march, along with a lesbian motorcycle group who called themselves "Dykes on Bikes" and numerous Kylie Minogue lookalikes.

In a sign of how attitudes have changed since the first such parade in 1978, serving military personnel joined for the first time and a group from Ikea, marching under the banner "Scandi-gay-via," represented the corporate world.

The 1978 march was staged at a time when male homosexuality was illegal in New South Wales state, and ended with more than 50 arrests as police and protesters clashed.



But police, who now have their own contingent of gay officers marching in the parade, praised the event's organisers and said there had been little trouble among the crowd.

Source-AFP
SRM/V


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