Bermudan history recorded

Despite all the fears inspired by haters and natural disaster (Hurricane Dorian) hit neighboring Bahamas Bermuda LGBTQ community stayed strong and enjoyed the first ever pride parade in its history (read about the event announcement here). In colorful outfits and rainbow flags over 6000 people marched in a center Hamilton, the country’s capital, to celebrate diversity. Elizabet Christopher, one of the organizers of Pride Parade hopes for the event to become regular with the date to be determined. “This is way bigger than we expected. We are so excited. It was building, things have changed, but it was never quite this,” she said. For a small island nation of only 65 thousand people the parade participants amounted to 10% of the population making an event truly nationwide. “There is an inherent value in a public celebration of our LGBTQ community in Bermuda as a reminder that we exist and that we are members of the Bermuda community,” said the spokesperson of OutBermuda, the main sponsor of the parade.

The parade started from Victoria Park and went through Court, Front, Queen and Church Streets with supporters cheering. The date of the event was chosen on purpose to celebrate so-called Stubbs Bill. Dated back to 1994 this legislative initiative was introduced by Dr. John Stubbs that resulted in decriminalization of same-sex relationships.Celebrating the 25 anniversary of Bill passing the Parliament, the organizers intended to “mark the work of those that campaigned for decriminalization.” The police did an excellent job protecting the event with only 1 (ONE!) protester encountering the march and even allowed to cover the police car with rainbow flag. The pride goers stayed at Victoria Park till late evening with musicians and DJs entertaining them. An absolutely peaceful and joyful pride parade could become a gold standard for other countries providing haters of LGBTQ community a clue on how to behave: DO NOT INTERVENE.