2 million attend
São Paulo pride
Around 2 million people turned out for the ninth gay-pride parade in São Paulo, Brazil, May 30, making it the world's largest gay-pride celebration.
Police, organizers and media outlets agreed on the attendance figure.
The parade traversed eight-lane, skyscraper-lined Avenida Paulista and featured drag queens, go-go boys, giant rainbow flags and trucks blasting music.
'With this many people ... the parade is a major step to strike people's prejudice against gays,' Pedro Almeida of the Brazilian Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Parade Association told the Associated Press.
Marchers demanded passage of laws creating civil unions for same-sex couples — something that has occurred so far only in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Mayor José Serra attended the festivities and spoke at a post-parade concert that featured several of Brazil's best-known singers.
Ukrainians protest homophobia
Gay activists in Ukraine marked the International Day Against Homophobia May 17 by releasing a huge balloon over Kiev's Independence Square decorated with the word 'homophobia' blotted out by the international 'no' symbol.
They also picketed the International Academy of Personnel Management's Economic Juridical School, which expelled a student last fall allegedly for being gay.
Students from the IAPM's Military Cossack Institute conducted a simultaneous counterprotest to 'protect' the school's 'moral priorities.'
Ukraine
Gay activists in Ukraine marked the International Day Against Homophobia May 17 by releasing a huge balloon over Kiev's Independence Square decorated with the word 'homophobia' blotted out by the international 'no' symbol.
