Hamilton's gay and lesbian community has been reminded by a few intolerant soccer fans why they must support each other with an annual Pride parade and festival.
This year's parade on Saturday ran into a group of Portuguese men rejoicing over their old country's World Soccer Championship win, but who were not very receptive to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) community celebrating its own victories as the parade made its way up ethnic James Street North.
While the jubilant parade participants paused for a moment of silence in front of Christ Church Cathedral to commemorate people who have died of AIDS, the soccer fans taunted them and called them derogatory names in Portuguese, observers said.
Lyla Miklos, spokesperson for Hamilton Pride Festival Inc., said some of the men were poking parade participants with their flagpoles before police stepped in to defuse the situation, "before it got stupid."
"That was a real sad reflection of things because the businesses along James were very supportive (of gay Pride)," she said.
(keep reading:HamiltonSpectator)
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