Tolerance instead of fear: Six weeks after a deadly attack at a gay bar in neighboring Norway, Scandinavia’s largest Pride parade has begun in Sweden. A large crowd set out on Saturday to march through Stockholm in celebration, standing up for love, human rights and sexual diversity.
The participants danced their way through the Swedish capital around the floats, many happily waving rainbow flags. Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde also wore a rainbow-colored outfit. “We’re showing our true colors during Stockholm Pride,” she wrote on Twitter.
The Stockholm Pride Parade is considered to be the largest in all of Scandinavia. The organizers expected around 50,000 participants and around half a million people on the side of the road. The corona pandemic had prevented larger parades in the past two years.
Before a large Pride parade in the Norwegian capital Oslo at the end of June, an attacker fired shots near a popular gay bar. Two people died and 21 others were injured.