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LGBTQ & Allies Show their Colors during the 2014 Caracas Pride Parade

On Sunday, June 29th, Venezuelan members of the LGBTQ community and allies marched through the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. The demonstrators came from many different social sectors and represented a wide variety of political beliefs.

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On Sunday, June 29th, Venezuelan members of the LGBTQ community and allies marched through the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. The demonstrators came from many different social sectors and represented a wide variety of political beliefs. As reported by Arlene Eisen for venezuelanalysis.com, the mood of the march was festive- a celebration of pride and diversity of sexual expression rather than a call to action.

However, different socialist groups, most notably the Sex-Gender Diverse Revolutionary Alliance (ASGDRe), hosted a separate march and peppered the Sunday march with posters bearing a clear political goal; for the National Assembly to legalize gay marriage.

Currently in Venezuela, an estimated 6000 same- gender families—with and without children— have no formal legal protection.

Other demands made by politicized LGBTQ groups included; cultural education for tolerance in schools and acceptance of sexual diversity in work spaces and in government, further separation from the religious values that pervade legislature, the formal recognition of homophobic violence as a form of hate crime, and the freedom for transexuals and others to determine their legal gender identity.

Text by Z.C. Dutka. Image credits listed below.