World's gay communities rally after Orlando attack

The crowd was estimated at between 5,000 and 7,000 strong, as other rallies took place from Berlin to Bangkok

LONDON: Crowds flocked to vigils around the world in shock at the shooting of dozens of Florida club-goers in the deadliest ever attack on the gay rights movement.

Thousands lined the streets in the central London district of Soho, long a hub for the gay community in Britain, bursting into chants of "we're here, we're queer, we will not live in fear" under rainbow flags.

A policeman at the scene estimated the crowd at between 5,000 and 7,000 strong, as other rallies took place in cities from Berlin to Bangkok.

"It's about solidarity, it's a way for our voice to be to be heard -- to try to tell everybody that love wins," said Julius Reuben, 35, wearing towering heels and a long black dress.

"It made me feel more insecure," he added. "We shouldn't have to protect ourselves so much, we should be accepted for who we are."



The crowd in London released 49 brightly coloured balloons into the sky for each one of the victims of Sunday's massacre at the gay nightclub in Orlando, the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

Standing outside the Admiral Duncan, a pub where three people died when a neo-Nazi planted a nail bomb in a homophobic attack in 1999, Jennifer Hersey, a 36-year-old originally from Texas, wiped away a tear as she looked out onto the crowd.

"It's amazing, because people could be scared. It's better that people gather and meet together. Every time that something horrible happens, people come out," she told AFP.

The leader of Britain's opposition Labour party Jeremy Corbyn attended the vigil as did London mayor Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim to hold the post.

"It was an attack on our freedoms and our values," Khan said in a television interview before the rally. "What's really important is that we stand shoulder to shoulder with the victims and their families in Orlando."

'Act of hate'

In Australia, the landmark Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit with the rainbow colours of the gay community flag as hundreds gathered to condemn terror and homophobia.



The heritage buildings on the Brussels Grand Place/Grote Markt lit up in the colors of the LGBT rainbow flag on 13 June 2016 in support of the victims of Orlando shootings in Brussels. PHOTO: AFP

"This could have happened anywhere," Paul Savage told AFP at a candlelit vigil for the victims on the busy strip that hosts Sydney's annual Mardi Gras pride march.



"He could easily have walked into a bar in Sydney," he said, though he added that Australia's tighter gun laws were "much more helpful" in preventing the mass shootings that claim hundreds of lives each year in the United States.

In Berlin, more than 100 people gathered outside the US embassy to lay flowers, light candles and wave rainbow flags.

And in the Netherlands, the first country to legalise same-sex marriage, hundreds gathered at Amsterdam's "Homomonument", composed of three pink triangles, designed to commemorate gay men and women who have been persecuted because of their sexuality.

But in Moscow a couple were arrested as they tried to leave a tribute outside the US embassy, the RBK newspaper reported.

Islam Abdullabeckov, a social media editor for the newspaper, and his boyfriend Felix Glyukman were trying to leave flowers and a sign reading "Love wins - Stay with Orlando" outside the embassy when they were detained, they told RBK.

In an outpouring of solidarity similar to that seen after the Paris and Brussels attacks, social media were awash with messages of support for the families of the victims.

The Eiffel Tower was lit up in rainbow colours and the colours of the American flag in solidarity, as the city still reels from November militant attacks in which 130 people were killed.



The Islamic State group, which was behind the Paris and Brussels attacks, also claimed responsibility for the Florida bloodshed.

In one of several vigils across the United States, hundreds gathered in New York's Greenwich Village on Sunday to leave flowers beside a sign reading "Stop Hate", and the One World Trade Center's spire was lit up in rainbow colours.

Leaders around the world sent condolences, with Pope Francis expressing shock at Mateen's "homicidal folly and senseless hatred".

US President Barack Obama denounced the attack at the Pulse nightclub by slain shooter Omar Mateen, which also wounded 53, as "an act of terror and an act of hate".