Rainbow weekend: Pride events big and small across Europe

Gay Pride Britain city London France Iran Ukraine Finland city Sanna, county Marin county Marin city Helsinki LGBT Pope Francis Weekend

02.07.2022 - 21:03

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euronews.com:

Pride events around Europe on Saturday - big and small - brought a rainbow celebration of LGBTQ rights into focus.

From a huge carnival in London with an estimated one million people attending, to a tiny event in the Arctic village of Inari, here's how Europe marked a busy Pride weekend.

Revelers in the UK capital marked 50 years of Pride.

A vibrant crowd turned out to either take part in or watch the festivities, forming a spectacle of rainbow flags, glitter and sequins.

After two years of cancellations because of the coronavirus pandemic, the parade came a half-century after London’s first march to celebrate Pride in 1972.

Saturday’s procession took on a similar route to the original, starting outside Hyde Park and touring the streets towards Westminster. It was to be followed by a concert in Trafalgar Square.

Chris Joell-Deshields, the director of organizers Pride in London, said “momentous” rights and freedoms had been earned since the inaugural event, “but there is more to be done”.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan hailed a “beautiful day” of “unity, visibility, equality and solidarity” as he joined in the celebrations.

More than 600 LGBTQ groups were expected to take part in the march, which was headed by members of the Gay Liberation Front from the 1972 protest.

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin joined tens of thousands of people in the capital Helsinki for the annual Pride parade.

She told journalists that a new trans rights law would be put before parliament in the autumn session, which would tackle issues like giving 15 year-olds the right to change their gender, and removing finally a requirement for trans people to be sterilised before they can legally change their gender.

Marin, who described growing up in a 'rainbow