Thousands of people joined this year's Gay Pride march in Jerusalem amid a heavy police presence. Ultra-Orthodox Jews staged a counterdemonstration against same-sex couples' right to adopt.
Image: picture alliance/NurPhoto/G. Yaari
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Hundreds of security personnel were deployed across central Jerusalem on Thursday as the city held its Gay Pride parade. Police said an estimated 10,000 people participated in the parade, which organizers say this year aims to highlight the ties between the LGBTQ community and religion.
Police said more than a thousand officers and security guards were on duty throughout the event. According to Israel's Channel 2 broadcaster, they also issued warnings to some 50 individuals, advising them that no provocations would be tolerated and ordering some to stay away from the city center.
Before the march started, 12 people were taken into custody on suspicion of trying to disrupt the event or cause harm, police said, adding that one person who was detained was carrying a knife.
Yishai Schlissel is serving a life sentenceImage: Reuters/R. Zvulun
This year's parade also comes in the wake of recent clashes over the management of the city's controversial holy site, the Temple Mount. The Gay Pride event has long been a source of tension between Jerusalem's secular minority and its Jewish Orthodox population. Many of Israel's strictly religious communities consider homosexuality to be a sin.
Police were criticized at the time for failing to stop the perpetrator, Yishai Schlissel, who had also carried out a similar attack on marchers in 2005. He had been released from jail for that crime weeks before carrying out the repeat attack. He is currently serving a life sentence for murdering the teenager.
During this year's parade, many of the revellers laid flowers under a picture of Banki.
The pride event in Jerusalem is small in comparison to the one held each year in the beachside city of Tel Aviv, where 200,000 people took part in June.
Right-wing counterdemo
Meanwhile, police granted permission for 100 people from the ultranationalist group Lehava to hold a counterdemonstration several hundred meters away from the Gay Pride march. Their rally, taking place under the slogan "Don't give them children," takes aim at a campaign to give same-sex couples greater adoption rights.
In Israel, gay and lesbian couples have legally been able to adopt for about 10 years, but only in specific situations. In practice, many homosexual applicants are rejected outright, and can only adopt in cases where no appropriate heterosexual couples can be found.
Gay and lesbian advocacy groups hoping to challenge entrenched discrimination have filed a petition with Israel's Supreme Court. The Israeli government says it opposes any changes to the law, and has stated that allowing same-sex couples to adopt would place an "additional burden" on the child.
According to the Haaretz newspaper, only three same-sex families, two male couples and one female couple have managed to adopt children in Israel since 2008. Over that same period, 1,700 heterosexual couples were able to adopt children.
nm,se/kms (AFP, dpa, AP)
Berlin celebrates Gay Pride with annual Christopher Street Day
Berlin is regarded as one of the most tolerant capital cities in the world. With its diverse LGBTQ community, Berlin likes to show off just how open-minded the city is, especially during Gay Pride.
Image: picture alliance/Eventpress Stauffenberg
A parade against intolerance
With gay marriage being legalized in Germany last month, a recurrent theme of wedding imagery kept cropping up throughout the parade. Organizers of Berlin's Christopher Street Day stressed the importance of tolerance and inclusivity, underscored here with the proximity of revellers to the site of the deadly Christmas market van attack at the Breitscheidplatz Square last year, which cost 12 lives.
Image: Reuters/F. Bensch
Leather and lace
Not all participants, however, focused on the theme of matrimony. Some groups participating in the Pride parade rather paid attention to great detail when it came to highlighting their various fetish interests. Berlin is well known for its underground BDSM scene, attracting visitors from all over the world with knack for a bit of slap and tickle.
Image: Reuters/F. Bensch
All the colors of the rainbow
Berlin's annual parade lasts for miles and always attracts people in colorful costumes coming from near and far to attend the event. Whether can-can or rave, people dance on the streets and celebrate diversity in sexual orientation and gender identity. Berlin has been celebrating Gay Pride since 1979, growing steadily each year.
Image: Reuters/F. Bensch
Summer of love
One of the largest Pride events in the world, close to a million people are expected to attend Berlin's Christopher Street Day - or CSD. The Gay Pride event is so popular that some Berlin neighborhoods like Kreuzberg have taken to organizing their own versions as well. Other cities across Germany also celebrate Pride in summer, with Cologne's CSD being equally popular.
Image: Picture Alliance/dpa/R. Jensen
Gay politicians lead the way
There is also a political message to all the celebrations, which is best communicated by politicians taking part in the annual event. Green Party MP Volker Beck (right) and the Berlin state delegate in charge of the judiciary Dirk Behrendt (left) both joined in on the revelries, while making sure that everyone got the message that members of the LGBTQ community are part of all sections of society.
Image: Picture Alliance/dpa/J. Carstensen
From near and far
While Germany's inclusion of the LGBTQ community is taken for granted people in other countries around the world still face varying degrees of persecution on account of their sexual orientation. These visitors from Venezuela brought a bit of their native culture to Berlin's CSD, contributing to the multicultural flavor of Germany's biggest annual Gay Pride event.
Image: Picture Alliance/dpa/J. Carstensen
No to hate crimes
But despite growing numbers of people who feel comfortable to make their sexual orientation public, hate crimes against gays, lesbians and other members of the LGBTQ community are also on the rise in Germany. This year's Pride event stressed a zero-tolerance attitude towards hate crimes, with slogans like "Nein zur Hassgewalt" (which translates as "Say no to hate crimes").
