Get your rainbow flag out of the closet: Viet Pride returns to Hanoi this week.
According to the festival's website, this year’s main event, titled “Path of Pride”, will kick off in the capital on August 21 with a bicycle Pride parade passing by various landmarks in the city.
In the days leading up to the parade, Viet Pride will also feature a range of other activities, such as LGBT film screenings, panel discussions regarding issues in the LGBT community and exchanges with the Parent, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), reports Tuoi Tre.
Founder and former director of Freedom to Marry Evan Wolfson will be attending this year’s Viet Pride, giving a talk on August 18 at Hanoi’s American Center. Freedom to Marry is an American NGO whose main aim was to push for marriage equality in all of the country’s 50 states; same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States last summer.
This year’s Viet Pride is the collective effort of many local organizations and volunteers working for LGBT rights, including 6+, Hanoi Queer, NextGEN, CSAGA and iSEE as well as other foreign NGOs and embassies. According to Saigon Giai Phong, Viet Pride 2016 will also see the participation of various local celebrities, such as Toc Tien, Pham Huong, Mai Ngo and Trung Quan. The main event will kick off in Hanoi, followed by events in 36 provinces and cities in the country.
[Photo via Viet Pride]
