Some 300,000 mark 30th Sydney gay pride parade

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — Some 300,000 people lined the streets of Sydney on Saturday night to watch the largest gay pride parade in the Asia Pacific as the event marked its 30th anniversary, organisers said.

Marchers dressed as sequined flight attendants, nuns and beach lifesavers formed part of the march, along with a lesbian motorcycle group who called themselves "Dykes on Bikes" and numerous Kylie Minogue lookalikes.

In a sign of how attitudes have changed since the first such parade in 1978, serving military personnel joined for the first time and a group from Ikea, marching under the banner "Scandi-gay-via," represented the corporate world.

The 1978 march was staged at a time when male homosexuality was illegal in New South Wales state, and ended with more than...