Hundreds of thousands of revelers gathered in the streets of New York to take part in gay pride, one of the world´s largest gay celebrations.
About 150,000 people took part in the march, which comes after 50 years of Stonewall riots. The festival also attracted a large number of people.
The riots, which followed a police raid on New York City´s Stonewall Barracks in 1969, have stimulated the fight for gay and other equality.
This year´s march began outside the bar and was described as the largest gay pride parade in history.
LGBT community groups, known in the Arab world as the Mim community, a term referring to gays, transgenders and bisexuals, organized similar rallies in other countries to celebrate the occasion, demonstrating the global shift in attitudes towards gay rights.
The LGBT Gay Pride Festival brings gay, gay, bisexual and transgender people from around the world to participate in the review and a conference on human rights.
The event was last held in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2017.
The New York march is the first gay pride parade to be held in the United States.
The festival´s main parade this year, which is about 4 kilometers long, has passed on many features of the gay community, including the Stonewall National Monument and the New York City AIDS Memorial.
New York Mayor Bill de Palacio was seen at the festival.
New York Mayor Bill de Palacio joined the march outside the Stonewall bar.
Another smaller march was organized for the Movement for the Liberation of the Gay Man. Organizers said such festivals, including the New York rally, had become very commercial in nature.
The group said in a statement that the alternative march "brings this event back to the people, celebrates our victories and renews our commitment to fight our current battles."
San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle also hosted their own events.
And amidst a sea of ​​rainbow flags, symbolizing a gay community, the joyful scenes filled New York City, with people wearing colorful costumes, like the traditional costumes of some cultures.
Some participants expressed their gratitude to those in the gay and transgender movement whose activity made such rallies possible.
"It´s difficult for us today, but can you even imagine what some of these people went through in the past?" Said Josh Greenblatt, a 25-year-old actor who took part in the march.
"There is no way to thank them, only to express ourselves fully, real and sincere, and to support each other as we do so."
But a gay gathering in the Turkish capital ended with police using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
Turkish authorities banned Istanbul for the fifth consecutive year, but several hundred demonstrators attended anyway.
In other countries, gay pride was organized in the Republic of Northern Macedonia on Saturday, while participants in a march in Singapore called for the repeal of a law banning homosexual sex.
