40,000 People Attended Prague Pride Parade

The 8th annual Prague Pride took place from August 6 to August 12. The week-long festival celebrating the LGBT community had a record attendance of 90,000 people.

Five thousand more people took part in the celebrations compared to last year. Around 40,000 people watched Saturday’s parade which set off from Wenceslas Square and ended at Prague’s Letná plain, where a concert is held. This was the sixth annual parade, the first one in 2011 had some 7,000 participants. 

Some Czech political parties also had a big presence in the parade. The Greens and the Pirates both had contingents behind banners and carried signs showing support of LGBT issues and rights. 

Festival organizers rented an area of 35,00 square meters on Letná, where they placed three large podiums, information stands for various non-profit organizations and an HIV testing booth. 

The main focus of this year’s LGBT festival was on a bill, due to be debated in Parliament in the autumn, that would allow gays and lesbians to enter into regular marriages, which would give them the same rights as heterosexuals.

LGBTI people still cannot adopt or foster children, and registered partners have no right to joint property and widow’s or widower’s pension, the organizers said. Transgender people must also undergo sterilization in order to change their registered sex.

Author: red