Sunday, June 22, 2014

Greece's second-biggest city, Thessaloniki, has its third gay day parade

Thessaloniki, in Greek Macedonia, was founded eight years after Alexander the Great (the most famous Macedonian) died. Thessaloniki now has about 322,240 people; with 790,824 living in the greater metropolitan area.
     The Omaha-sized city turned out 10,000 people for yesterday's event (if you believe the organizers) or 6,000 people if you believe the cops. Below are videos of the event from 2013 and (uploaded to YouTube just today) 2014.
     Taking part was Mayor Yiannis Boutaris and the consuls of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland and Portugal.
     U.S. Consul Robert P. Sanders carried a banner that read "Diplomats for Thessaloniki Pride."
     The march again was condemned by the local Orthodox church, whose leader, Bishop Anthimos, described it as a "promotion of perversion."
     Police maintained a heavy police presence to deter anti-gay attacks. None occurred.



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