São Paulo celebrated the world’s largest Pride Festival on the weekend

More than 3 million people attended the world’s largest LGBT+ Pride Festival in São Paul on Sunday in an event that took over more than 10 city blocks. The massive celebration of the Brazilian LGBT+ community strutted into its 22nd year with colourful costumes and rainbow flags down the city’s iconic Avendia Paulista.

The theme for this year’s Pride was “Power for the LGBT: Our Vote, Our Voice” with special attention paid to the nation’s elections this October.

Claudia Regina, president of São Paulo’s Pride group, made a statement emphasising the importance of voting in this year’s election: “Talking about elections in an election year during Pride is a valuable way to communicate to the entire LGBT community about the importance of choosing your candidates well. Together, all of us can move toward a more tolerant world with respect and less homophobia.”

Although Brazil has equal marriage and state-covered gender-confirming surgeries of trans people, the country has some of the highest rates of anti-LGBT+ violence in the world. Earlier this year it was reported there was a record 387 LGBT+ homicides in 2017, a 30 percent increase from 2016.