MONTREAL - The 19th annual Pride Parade marched down Rene-Levesque Boulevard in Montreal Sunday to the delight of thousands of onlookers.
The Pride Parade is a celebration of life in the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgendered (LGBT) population but people of all stripes enjoyed the parade.
"It's so colourful, so nice, I never miss a year," one woman told CTV Montreal.
The Grand Marshall was Alice Nkom, an attorney from Cameroon, where homosexuality is outlawed. She saluted Montreal as a place where rights are respected.
"In my country I fight for sexual minority rights," she said.
Among the politicians in attendance were PQ's Pauline Marois, NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel and Bob Rae of the federal Liberals.
Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay was there as well. "If we want to export what we have here in Montreal, we have to respect human dignity, this is exactly what this parade is all about," he told CTV Montreal.
Onlookers from abroad were impressed.
"I'm from Cuba," said one woman. "We don't have that, it's amazing, wonderful."
"We come from Colombia," said another. "We love it, we enjoy it, amazing people!"
"It's been quite painful," said one man with an Australian accent wearing red stilettos. "But I enjoy doing it."
The parade aimed to be a little less daring than previous incarnations in an attempt to make it a bit more of a family-friendly event.
