More than 18,000 people turned up to celebrate Pride in Quito, Ecuador. | Photo: Instagram/@saloalmeida
Just hours after a historic legal decision in favor of same-sex marriage in Ecuador, more than 18,000 people took to the streets of the capital, Quito, in a massive Pride parade.
This year’s theme #OrgullYo (I am proud), happened the day after two seperate court cases ruled that preventing same-sex civil unions was illegal and discriminatory.
Ecuador LGBTI website, El Closet LGBT, reported that as many as 18,000 people attended the festivities. Other news outlets reported smaller numbers, but they were still in their thousands.
‘Nobody gets tired with diversity’ (Por la diversidad, nadie se cansa), the marchers shouted as they paraded through the streets of Quito.
Quito’s Pride parade was an act of defiance as the LGBTI community faces extreme discrimination and persecution.
‘I am not your joke,’ one man had painted across his body.
‘I do not want to die for being trans,’ another banner read.
