Out and proud - if this time not quite so loud

Thousands of gays, lesbians, transsexuals, bisexuals and heterosexual filled the streets of downtown Madrid with music and color over the weekend for the city's 2011 Gay Pride celebrations. With the structure of a demonstration but the spirit of the party, this year's event, running under the slogan "Health and Equality By Right," once again fulfilled its role of championing equal rights to a backdrop of music, costumes and dancing.

Classics such as Alaska's A quién le importa and ABBA's Dancing Queen rang out from the some 35 floats that journeyed from Puerta de Alcalá along Gran Vía to Plaza de España, where, upon their arrival, the singer Marta Sánchez and other performers entertained the crowds on Saturday night.

The first Madrid Gay Pride was held in 1978 and in the intervening years the festivities have become some of the most important of their kind in the world. According to organizers, the event has stopped being strictly for gays, lesbians and transsexuals with heterosexuals accounting for around 40 percent of attendees.

However, the celebrations- which are the fruit of a private initiative by business owners in Chueca, the neighborhood that forms the heart of the festivities- are passing through a difficult moment this year. The banning of concerts in two of neighborhood's three squares- those of Vázquez de Mella and Chueca- in order to comply with noise regulations has caused organizers to fear that this could be Madrid's last Gay Pride. And an attempt to make the best of the situation by presenting a silent DJ session in Plaza de Chueca on Thursday night, with revelers dancing to music via headphones, proved a resounding failure. Nevertheless, such worries were forgotten on Saturday when the parade invaded the capital.

Before it set off, though, there were also some serious points to be made. The LGTB Collective, marking 30 years since the appearance of AIDS, read out its manifesto demanding more actual resources and less political compromises in the fight against the disease, saying the recession was no excuse for reducing funds for its prevention, "as [Madrid regional premier] Esperanza Aguirre does."

Ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's scheduled visit to the capital in August, it also issued a warning to the Catholic hierarchy, stating that "condemning the condom is blessing AIDS."