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Background
What is WorldPride?WorldPride is an international gay pride event licensed by the global gay pride organization, InterPride.
WorldPride Host Cities
InterPride licenses the WorldPride event to a member of the organization in "very special circumstances." The event has only been licensed twice. The first WorldPride was held in 2000 in Rome, Italy. The second World Pride is slated for Jerusalem in 2006. WorldPride 2006 is organized by Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance (JOH), a local Israeli LGBT community and advocacy organization.
Why Jerusalem?
This statement from the JOH adds clarity to the selection of Jerusalem as an international gay pride host city:
"Jerusalem WorldPride 2006 will gather people from all over the world to bring a message that is needed throughout the Middle East and beyond: that human rights transcend cultural and ethnic boundaries, that our differences can be respected peacefully, and that love knows no borders. There is no better place in the world than Jerusalem to make that statement, and perhaps no city that needs to hear it more.
The struggle for acceptance and pride is particularly pointed in Jerusalem, a city that is home to three of the world's great religions. The greatest traditions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism affirm the dignity of all human beings and our creation in the divine image. Yet these same faiths have often been sources of hostility and intolerance for LGBT people.
WorldPride 2006 will bring thousands of us to Jerusalem to confront preconception with reality, prejudice with an opportunity for understanding, in a way that will capture the attention of the world.
Together we will proclaim that in this ancient religious city - and in this region - we too belong." continue...
