200,000 Participators celebrated Gay Pride in the Tel Aviv Parade, marking the beginning of European Pride Season.The largest-ever Tel Aviv Pride Parade took place with the participation of over 200,000 people from Israel and abroad, making it the largest in the Middle East. Among the participators were the Tel Aviv Pride Ambassadors, Alan Cumming and Lea DeLaria.
The spotlight of this year’s Nonstop City’s Pride Parade was”Women for a Change”,highlighting the role of women in the LGBTQ community. The Tel Aviv Pride Parade marked the beginning of the European Pride season.
The Gay Pride Parade started at Meir Park (home of the Tel Aviv Gay Community Center) with music, shows and speeches. The parade kicked off with floats by the Beef, Shirazi, Lizi, Zoti, Tel Aviv Sauna and Beshela.
The parade was followed by a huge beach party at Charles Clore Park till sunset.
Gay Pride in Tel Aviv - Credit Guy Yechiely
Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Ron Huldai, upon launching the Parade: “My friends, we have been marching for some years now, and we will keep on marching in pursue of equality. We will keep marching these streets of Tel Aviv with the hope that the pluralism, tolerance and liberalism of this city will spread to the country, the Middle East and the world”.
Alan Cumming: “I’m so glad that I’ve waited to visit Israel until now, as coming to Tel Aviv as a very proud Pride ambassador is the best way I can imagine. I’m so honored to be so honored, and had a great time part-aying!”
Lea DeLaria: “I couldn’t be more honored and excited to be a Pride Ambassador for Tel Aviv Pride. Jewish girls are hot!”
The Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality allocates many resources into promoting and supporting the gay community, in an over-all yearly investment of $1 million. The Tel Aviv Pride Parade is the only parade in the world that is fully sponsored by the Municipality. In the last few years Tel Aviv has significantly deepened its investments to promote gay tourism to the city, while an estimated number of 35,000 tourists are expected to arrive this year in Tel Aviv to take part in the pride events.
