Cologne Pride draws thousands in defiance of rising LGBTQ+ hostility

Tens of thousands turned out in Cologne on Sunday to watch one of Europe's largest Pride parades, filling the rain-soaked streets with rainbow flags and colours.

Some 60,000 people and 90 floats took part in the parade in the western German city.

Rainbow colours, a symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) community, could be seen across the city, in people's clothing and on flags lining the streets.

Cologne is sending a strong signal today in support of human rights and everyone's right to live as they want, the city's mayor, Henriette Reker, said.

“The mood is different this time,” said Jens Pielhau, chairman of the Cologne Pride association, at the opening of the event. Freedom and the right to demonstrate openly and peacefully are in danger, he said.

Germany's LGBTQ+ community is facing increased hostility and is the target of a rising number of crimes.

In the face of this hostility, Pielhau stressed that it is all the more important to take to the streets in support of queer rights and to show up as a large community.

The local police said a large number of officers were on duty to protect the event.

Cologne Pride is one of the largest events for the LGBTQ+ community in Europe, hosting a march that is similar in size to the one in Berlin.

In Germany, the marches are known as Christopher Street Day (CSD), in honour of the 1969 protest against the police storming of the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in New York, which helped spark the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.