For more than 50 years LGBTQ+ communities have gathered to both party and protest. As London prepares for its 5 July march we look at celebrations elsewhere
The late novelist Edmund White was strolling through Greenwich Village on a hot summer’s eve in 1969 when he came across a chaotic scene: police officers pulling drag queens from a dive bar into paddy wagons.
A crowd had gathered there earlier to mourn the death of Judy Garland with singing, drinks and dancing. White later described the events of 28 June as “more Dada than Bastile”, but whatever the atmosphere, the brick that crashed through the window of the Stonewall Inn that night reverberated around the world. The name of a cramped Manhattan bar is now invoked in struggles for civil rights as far afield as Uganda.
A rainbow flag is held aloft during a Pride event in Chennai on 31 May 31.
In the more than five decades since, the Pride events which spring up annually on all seven continents (Antarctica’s is in November) have often straddled the divide between party and protest. That split-screen is especially stark this year in cities from Istanbul to Moldova, where right-wing politicians have intensified their assault on LGBTQ rights. Photos from renegade Pride marches show rainbow flags shining brightly against walls of black-clad, truncheon-wielding cops.
In Western Europe and the US, where once-debauched celebrations long ago rebranded as family-friendly fun, a whole spectrum of issues are under renewed attack, from gay marriage to transgender healthcare. Drag queens may still promenade in East Hampton and Zurich, but the festivities have taken on a defiant air.
The formation of the world's biggest LGBT pride flag at Zocalo Square in Mexico City on 22 June 22.
The Zurich Pride parade 21June.
Pride participants in East Hampton on 7 June.
Performers on the streets of Bangkok in 1 June.
A “Lady Gaga” participant in Santiago, Chile on 21 June.
A religious "cleansing” of the route taken by the Bucharest parade which took place the day before on 8 June.
A giant rainbow flag on the streets of Athens on 14 June.
LGBTQ community clash with the police at the start pride protest held in support of a campaign to pass an anti-discrimination bill in Manila on 26 June.
Moldovan police and anti-LGBTQ+ rights protesters clash near a Pride parade in Chisinau on 15 June.
The West Hollywood Pride parade on 1 June, California.
Photographs by Segei Supinsky/AFP, R. Satish Babu/AFP, Rodrigo Oropeza/AFP, Michael Buholzer/Keystone via AP, Christopher Pillitz / Getty Images, Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images, Esteban Felix/AP, Andreea Alexandru/AP, Aris Messinis/AFP, Jam Sta Rosa/AFP, Elena Covalenco/AFP, MEGA/GC Images
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