Tokyo - Some 3,000 people took their pride of being gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender to the streets of Tokyo Saturday
and led the annual Pride Parade.
Numerous floats decorated in rainbow-coloured balloons and flags
blasted music from speakers while participants wearing pink boas or
G-strings danced and waved to the onlookers.
Although the number of participants to the Tokyo Pride Parade has
been increasing every year, many still choose to remain anonymous in
Japan and others refrain from marching in the parade for fear of
being recognized as being gay or lesbian, according to the Pride
Parade committee.
Because people of the sexual minority community still experience
difficulties coming out to their coworkers and families, the sixth
annual event called for visibility of gays and lesbians in society
and promoted their presence in the mainstream society.
'We need to create a society where gay and lesbian people can live
as who they are without a fear of discrimination,' a panelist said at
a symposium staged at a Tokyo park, where at least 5,000 participants
of sexual minorities and their supporters gathered.
This year marks the first time that the event received support
from the government, namely the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry
and Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Aki Nonaka of Tokyo Pride Parade
said.
This is partly because the governments have recognized the
committee's efforts to promote HIV prevention, Nonaka said.
Japan is the only industrialized nation that sees the number of
HIV infections continuously rising, with the number of newly-infected
patients hitting a record high in 2006 to 914, according to the
government's AIDS Surveillance Committee.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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