LGBT campaigners will march through central London today on this year’s Pride parade. The demonstrations are usually held at the end of June, to mark the anniversary of the Stonewall demonstrations that erupted in New York in 1969. Manhattan hosted its first Pride parade the following year, and the idea quickly spread to other cities in North America. London’s first march was in 1972.
Parades in the US and further afield will be particularly emotional this year, coming just a few weeks after a gunman killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando. New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton has predicted the march on 26 June will be the biggest the city has ever seen.
The parades are generally no longer controversial in the west, with senior politicians lending their support and often joining in. But the recent ban of Istanbul Pride shows how far many other countries have to go on LGBT rights.
Authorities have banned Pride marches in the Russian capital until 2112, while parades in recent years Montenegro and Serbia have been met with violence. Last August some brave souls also marched in Entebbe, Uganda. The country only annulled a law punishing homosexual acts with life sentences in 2014, and attempts to legislate against gay people continue.
Methodology: The graphic lists the first major gay pride parade or equivalent LGBTQ demonstration (eg Christopher Street Day) we could find in each of the countries listed in the table. Not all marches are still happening, with some having been latterly banned or cancelled.
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