- Title: JERUSALEM-GAY PRIDE Jerusalem's gay community holds 13th pride parade
- Date: 18th September 2014
- Summary: GAY PRIDE PARADE UNDERWAY WITH FLAGS AND BALLOONS
- Embargoed: 3rd October 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Jerusalem
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA462Z9JXK2422H0E5LR1RR8OEJ
- Story Text: Several thousand enthusiastic members and supporters of Jerusalem's gay community turned out on Thursday (September 18) for the city's 13th annual pride parade.
The march passed off in a sea of balloons, banners and rainbow flags without any opposition or incident, despite the city's conservative reputation.
"Jerusalem is a very conservative place, although everything, there are a gay community here, there is a goth community here that will walk every time, and we don't care about anything," said Jerusalem resident Shirley Gurtem before the march started.
"Despite all they say about Jerusalem, we still have everything here, and we still want to live here. I've lived here all my life, and I'm walking like this in the street and people are always mocking me, telling me stuff, and still I'm here to support the people, and tell them that it's ok to be here, especially in Jerusalem," she said.
Another participant in the parade, Khaled Alkam, spoke of the challenges faced by the Arab gay community.
"I am an Arab from East Jerusalem, and I belong with these people. I'm a gay. And I just want to tell that in the Arab community nobody accept us in the families, we got a lot of homophobia in the schools and when we go to work, so I want to tell that we are here, and we are strong enough to get our process, maybe in the future, but we are fighting to get our process as Arabs belong to the gay community," said Alkam.
Jerusalem's pride parade, which was postponed over the summer due to the conflict in Gaza, has always been on a more modest scale than that held in more liberal Tel Aviv.
Frank and Ewan, however - two visitors from Amsterdam - were still impressed by what they saw.
"We couldn't find anything about.. the gay life in Jerusalem is really small. And last week we were in Tel Aviv it was really big, so we didn't think there was anything to do here, to go out, or even a march like this. So this was really a big surprise that it was going on here," said Frank.
"And the turnout is quite high. There's a lot of people here - thousands I think - so it's not bad," added Ewan.
Past pride parades in the holy city, sacred for the three monotheistic religions, have seen anti-gay protests and violence.
In 2005, an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed and wounded three participants.
But for Lea Witmar, a visitor from Florida, there was only one word to describe this year's march.
"I think it's wonderful. I think it shows that Israel accepts everybody and that everybody can be themselves, and I think that's wonderful," she said.
The annual march has been held in the Jerusalem since 2001.
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