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Cologne streets fill for LGBT+ parade

Deutsche Welle

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Participants of the Christopher-Street-Day-Parade walk through the city center of Cologne, Germany, July 8, 2018. Sascha Steinbach/EPA-EFE/file" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/overseas/07/09/20230709-germany.jpg" class="fr-fil fr-dib"/><figcaption>Participants of the Christopher-Street-Day-Parade walk through the city center of Cologne, Germany, July 8, 2018. <em>Sascha Steinbach/EPA-EFE/file</em></figcaption></figure></div><div><strong>The Christopher Street Day parade is among the largest LGBT+ events in Europe. Organizers said the parade would be the longest ever, with a 4.3-kilometer route (about 2.8 miles) going through the city center. </strong></div><p>Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on Sunday in the western German city of Cologne for the annual Christopher Street Day (CSD) demonstration and celebration.</p><p>The parade, which is the culmination of two weeks of pride events, is among the largest LGBT+ events in Europe. Only Berlin&#x27;s celebrations are of comparable size in Germany.</p><div><strong>Goal &#x27;not yet reached&#x27; in fight against homophobia</strong></div><p>&quot;We have already achieved a lot, but we have not yet reached our goal,&quot; Culture Minister Claudia Roth said in opening comments of the event.</p><p>She said that there was still a lot of work to be done in the fight for equal rights and against homophobia and discrimination.</p><p>Health Minister Karl Lauterbach called for participants to take care of each other, to stay hydrated and take shelter in the shade.</p><p>Cologne is seeing hot and humid weather of up to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) this Sunday, which prompted German weather service (DWD) to issue a heat warning for it and other cities.</p><div><strong>What happens during CSD in Cologne?</strong></div><p>Organizers said the CSD parade would be longer than ever, with some 60,000 participants following a 4.3-kilometer route (about 2.8 miles) through the city center.</p><p>ColognePride said it expected up to one-and-a-half million people to attend.</p><p>Some 220 groups were registered for the parade, which features music and floats, but others are also invited to walk the route.</p><p>The name Christopher Street refers to the location of the Stonewall Inn bar, a popular venue with New York&#x27;s gay community, which police raided in 1969.</p><p>That police action prompted days of clashes with law enforcement and protest from gays, lesbians and transgender people complaining of intense discrimination against their communities.</p><p>That show of resistance is considered a landmark event for the gay rights movement — not only in the United States, but across the globe.</p><p>ColognePride&#x27;s motto for this year&#x27;s event is &quot;For human rights. Many. Together. Strong.&quot;</p><p>Police say several hundred officers will be on duty to protect the event, with streets near the route of the procesison closed for much of the day.</p><p>A number of prominent German politicians, including Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, were set to address the crowd before the start of the parade.</p><p>Earlier this year, Lauterbach said Germany would amend its guidelines for donating blood, so the same rules apply to everyone regardless of their sexual orientation.</p><p>Rules restricting donations from gay men date back to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, when they were considered to have a higher likelihood of passing on the virus.</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2693608" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

The parade is among the largest LGBT+ events in Europe. Only Berlin's celebrations are of comparable size in Germany.