Fridae

An estimated 180,000 people attended Latin America's biggest ever gay pride march in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sunday, reports the BBC.

Eighteen floats, with music, go-go dancers and drag queens, led the march to the city center that is home to many gay bars.

Gay activist Andre Fischer said the march "gives the [GLBT] community a greater visibility and makes others less afraid of gays".

The city's mayor who supports the march said she was proud that the city had a reputation for accepting gay people. Mayor Marta Suplicy told the BBC, "People may be different but they have equal rights."

The scale of the festival has grown rapidly since the city's first gay pride march in 1996 where only about 2,000 people participated.

Health Ministry volunteers handed out free condoms at the march while partygoers danced under a huge 50-yard long rainbow canopy.

Police estimated the crowd at 180,000 - a substantial increase over last year's march, which drew 120,000.

According to Fischer, Sao Paulo's gay parade is now the world's seventh-largest, after New York, San Francisco, London, Sydney, Montreal and Paris.