“People ask, 'Aren’t you doing it to spite the religious community? You should be respectful,'”Marcu said. But this only makes the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade more important, Marcu said. In the "Holy City," pressure from religious communities makes it difficult to be openly gay. But in Jerusalem, the situation is something else. Still, Tel Aviv remains the unofficial "gay capital" of Israel, and its colorful, festive annual parade draws attention from all over the world.
Some experienced their parents saying, "I would rather have a dead child than a gay child." Speaking to Al-Monitor at the Open House, Marcu said that the Tel Aviv attack cut especially deep, partly because of the city’s reputation of being more tolerant and because many of the youths had not come out to their family and friends. In August 2009, a masked man walked into a LGBT youth center in Tel Aviv and started shooting, killing two and wounding dozens. According to Alice Marcu, from the grassroots activist community center Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance - referred to as the "Open House" - there are no records of hate crimes against the LGBT community. But serious hate crimes are not uncommon. Israel often brands itself as the hub of tolerance for the LGBT community in a region where such labels are heavily stigmatized and often dangerous. Wherever there is strong homophobia, the drag queen comes and glitters it out,” Naveh said. “That is something a drag queen in Jerusalem does. We can’t have such abomination in the country.” Naveh, who was standing only 20 to 30 meters away from the incident, said it was a major scare, but also a time when he felt that it was his responsibility as "hostess" to show people that the parade had to carry on. He explained that it is not so much the frequency of incidents of violence, but the constant awareness of the threat of violence.ĭuring the Gay Pride Parade in 2005, an extremist from the ultra-Orthodox Haredi community stabbed and injured three people, arguing later during his police interrogation that he “came to murder on behalf of God. 1 - said he has never been attacked himself, but seen it happen to several of his friends. Naveh - among the organizers of the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade to take place on Aug. Raised in a very secular family and coming out at the age of 13, he said he was also raised in a bubble. It’s the most beautiful city in the world, but has some of the ugliest sides of humanity in it,” he said.
“Jerusalem is one of the craziest cities in the world. No tickets are necessary.In a sparkling, beaded black dress and stilettos, 30-year-old "Gallina Port des Bras" bid welcome from the stage of " Mikveh" - the self-proclaimed "one and only lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and straight-friendly club in Jerusalem." Smacking her strawberry red lips and flipping her long blond wig, Port des Bras - whose offstage name is Gil Naveh - told Al-Monitor that though Jerusalem has bred the country’s most famous drag queens, the city is no easy place to be a drag queen, or for that matter gay.
To be a Sponsor at one of the largest LGBT Pride Celebration please send an email to event is FREE and open to the public. Sponsors: Bud Light, Hot 95.7, KRBE 104.1, South Beach Night Club, OutSmart Magazine, Manhunt, Grindr, Noize Magazine This Houston LGBT Pride PARADE this year starts a bit earlier at 8:15 PM and ends at 11:00 PM. The Houston LGBT Pride FESTIVAL starts at 1:00 PM and ends at 7:00 PM. Come and join all of the LGBT Community in celebrating who we are as a people. The Houston LGBT Pride Festival and Pride Parade are at the center of the Celebration and are attended by over 325,000 people every year from all over the world.
Every year, Pride Houston works hard with national sponsors and local volunteers to organize and produce a series of events that cater to and promote Houston’s ever-growing LGBT community. Pride Houston has worked at the heart of the local LGBT community to educate and celebrate the diversity within our city’s large population. 2013 marks 35 years of the Houston LGBT Pride Celebration.