UK rugby star Ben Cohen and Ft. Worth
Councilman Joel Burns greeted more than 35,000 revelers at Dallas'
annual Gay Pride Parade on Sunday.
About 60 floats traveled the roughly 1
mile parade route down Cedar Springs Road to Lee Park in downtown
Dallas, NBC
reported.
The 28th annual Dallas Gay
Pride Parade, called the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade, was led by
Burns, this year's honorary grand marshal. Burns is the openly gay
Fort Worth councilman whose video
of a speech he gave last year at a city council meeting about gay
teens bullied to death went viral on the Internet.
“All of you sharing your stories is
what we're celebrating here,” Burns told festival attendees.
“Thank you for sharing your stories of being who you are, of being
out and of being inclusive.” (The video is embedded in the right
panel of this page.)
Cohen was also honored by parade
organizers. The husband and father of two retired from playing rugby
in the UK earlier this year to head his anti-homophobia campaign, the
Ben Cohen
StandUp Foundation.
“The time is right now to retire from
rugby and follow my new passion,” Cohen said during a recent
videotaped interview. “People have the right to be happy and, you
know, to be loved and love others.”