THE GUARDIAN: Liberal, hedonistic and secular Israeli metropolis has ambitions to be world's most gay-friendly place
Rainbows were everywhere – on faces, belts, garlands, T-shirts, paper fans, tattoos and hats. One man had a python draped around his neck, a soldier in uniform carried a rainbow flag, and a young woman, almost naked, danced to the throbbing music, oblivious to the crowds and the searing heat.
On Friday, thousands of people poured on to Tel Aviv's Gordon beach at the end of the annual Gay Pride parade in celebration of sexual freedom, tolerance and their city's ambition to be the most gay-friendly place on Earth.
"The weather is hot, the guys are hot, it's a hot city," said 28-year-old Amit Margalit, wearing turquoise shades and matching beads over his bare chest.
The parade's organisers estimated that more than 100,000 Israelis, plus another 5,000 tourists, took part. Every square metre of shade was crammed, friends greeted one another with sweaty kisses and hugs, stalls selling ice-cold beer were doing brisk trade and traffic jams backed up around closed streets.
Tel Aviv, in sharp contrast to Jerusalem, is a liberal, hedonistic and secular city, where leisure life revolves around beaches, cafes and nightclubs.
Lonely Planet named it one of its top three cities in the world for 2011, describing it as "the flipside of Jerusalem, a modern Sin City on the sea rather than an ancient Holy City on a hill" and adding: "There are more bars than synagogues, God is a DJ and everyone's body is a temple." The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rarely on the radar. » | Harriet Sherwood in Tel Aviv | Friday, June 10, 2011
