Cologne, Germany - Around half-a-million people thronged the centre of Cologne on Sunday for the annual gay pride parade known as Christopher Street Day. More than 90 brightly coloured floats snaked their way through the streets in pleasant summer temperatures accompanied by gay, lesbian and trans-sexual people dressed in fancy or revealing costumes.
Another gay pride carnival in Berlin eight days ago attracted a similar number of people.
The parade is held in memory of the first big uprising of homosexuals against police assaults that took place in Christopher Street in New York's Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969.
