Thousands take part in Tel Aviv gay pride parade

[Behind the Aegis]

Thousands took part in Tel Aviv's gay pride parade Friday, including several politicians, among them opposition leader and Kadima chairperson Tzipi Livni.

Livni addressed crowds at the parade's opening at Gan Meir park on Tchernichovsky Street, where she said that Israel could "not afford the fear that turns into hatred of the other."

"These days, there is a sense that Israel has become a sealed pressure cooker, that would be easy to be swept away by internal hate toward Arabs and gays," Livni said.

"I have heard people express political fears – as if sexual identity were a political identity, as if new immigrants, religious communities, or any other human society, did not have gays or lesbians aomng them," Livni said.

Livni added: "Because the tendencies of the body and heart are not political, the protection of the community is not within the realm of any one political group. It is a matter of human beings respecting each others."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/thousands-take-part-in-tel-aviv-gay-pride-parade-1.295610

(there is a slideshow, but damned if I can find it!)

[davidinalameda]

1. click on the bottom of the photos