Free Republic

In a sea of rainbow parasols, colorful tutus, and rhinestone hats, the 2025 San Francisco Pride Parade pulsed with celebration and defiance. As some corporate sponsors notably pulled back and federal crackdowns on LGBTQ+ rights escalated, this year’s theme revolved around a phrase coined by Audre Lorde: joy as resistance.

Around 10,000 people gathered in and around the Lancaster County Convention Center on Saturday for the 17th annual Lancaster Pride Festival, the largest gathering in the festival’s history and the first to be attended by a Pennsylvania governor. Fifty-six years to the day since the Stonewall uprising in New York City renewed the gay rights movement in America and 10 years since the United States Supreme Court established marriage equality, Gov. Josh Shapiro joined local elected officials and festival organizers onstage to celebrate Lancaster’s LGBTQ+ community. Sights from Lancaster Pride Festival 2025 [photos] “Here in Pennsylvania, we fight for equality...

Washington (AP) — After the raucous rainbow-hued festivities of Saturday’s parade, the final day of World Pride 2025 in the nation’s capital kicked off on a more downbeat note.Thousands gathered under grey skies Sunday morning at the Lincoln Memorial for a rally and protest march, as the community gathers its strength for a looming fight under President Donald Trump’s second administration. “This is not just a party,” Ashley Smith, board president of Capital Pride Alliance. “This is a rally for our lives.”Smith acknowledged that international attendance numbers for the bi-annual World Pride were measurably down, with many potential attendees avoiding...

Multiple brawls and wild chaos engulfed Washington Square Park in the aftermath of New York City’s Pride Parade Sunday as police battled to control the unruly mob of revelers, shocking footage shows. Video from the jaw-dropping scene showed fistfights and hair-pulling as several troublemakers turned the crowded park into their own personal boxing ring while herds of onlookers watched with glee and even whipped out their phones to record the showdowns in Lower Manhattan. At one point, two young men threw haymakers at each other before one took a tumble to the ground. Seconds later, two women briefly took swings...

Thousands of people danced, sang and celebrated at Toronto’s Pride Parade on Sunday until the procession was suddenly stopped mid-route, and then cancelled, by a protest. About 30 demonstrators, calling themselves the Coalition Against Pinkwashing, held banners and chanted on Yonge Street, just south of Wellesley Street, three and a half hours after the parade’s 2 p.m. start. Floats and marchers making their way south toward the parade’s finish at Nathan Phillips Square were stranded behind the protesters, who chanted “Free Palestine” and “Pride is a protest.” And 45 minutes after the protest began, Pride Toronto announced the remainder of...

U.K. health authorities have urged anyone who tests positive for the monkeypox virus to abstain from sex until their symptoms have cleared. In new guidance released Monday, the U.K. Health Security Agency also recommended that previously infected persons continue to use condoms for a period of eight weeks after the virus has passed, as a precautionary measure. The health agency said the risks to the general public remain low, but encouraged people to contact a health professional if they notice any unusual rashes or lesions. The advice comes after Britain recorded an additional 71 cases of the virus over the...

ANOKA, Minn. (WCCO) – As Anoka gears up for its annual Halloween parade, an online petition is attracting a lot of attention. It’s supporting a gay youth group that’s not being allowed to march in this year’s parade. The group is called Justin’s Gift, named after Justin Aaberg. He was a student at Anoka High School who committed suicide. His family says he couldn’t take the bullying he endured, over his sexual orientation. The co-founders of Justin’s Gift felt like being a part of the parade would be a great opportunity for the community to show its support for gay...

Like pretty much every child who walks up Main Street U.S.A. at Disney World for the first time, Alix, 10, and her brother Evan, 11, can barely contain their anticipation. Evan wants to ride Space Mountain. Alix is so excited, she can't even say what she wants to do. She is jumping up and down. It's a typical Disney scene, except that Evan, Alix and their sister Jamie, a desultory 4-year-old shielded from the sun in a stroller, have come to the Magic Kingdom with their two moms. It is the 20th anniversary of Gay Days at Disney, and...