Massive Crowds Gather for Brazil’s Pride Parade

Jun 23, 2019
5:25 PM

Revelers kiss during the annual gay pride parade at Paulista avenue in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, June 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people are filling a main São Paulo thoroughfare for one of the world’s largest LGBT pride parades.

Well-known Brazilian artists also gave live performances Sunday as supporters cheered on speeches given by gay rights activists.

The parade’s 23rd edition is the first since the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who once described himself as a “proud homophobe.”

Some parade-goers carried signs calling for the president’s ouster and screamed the anti-Bolsonaro rallying cry of “Not him!”

During the annual gay pride parade at Paulista Avenue in São Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, June 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine)

One person yelled from a double-decker sound car: “We’re here mainly to resist.”

The parade is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City.