One year after decriminalization, Thailand's cannabis future looks hazy

Thailand decriminalized cannabis one year ago, but a cloud of uncertainty remains over the industry. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI

BANGKOK, June 9 (UPI) -- Dispensaries can be found on seemingly every corner of this bustling capital city, their neon-lit marijuana leaves beckoning customers as Thailand marks the one-year anniversary of becoming the first country in Asia to decriminalize cannabis.

More than 1.1 million citizens have registered to grow cannabis and nearly 5,000 shops, with names such as Four Twenty and Best Buds, have opened their doors throughout the country over the past year. But the industry remains under a cloud of uncertainty about its future -- a future that has grown even hazier in the wake of last month's election.

The progressive Move Forward Party, which won a stunning victory on May 14, already has proposed reclassifying cannabis as a narcotic in a move that has alienated some supporters and alarmed industry insiders.

"[Cannabis] is being used as a weapon in politics," said Chokwan "Kitty" Chopaka, a longtime legalization advocate and entrepreneur.

"Maybe I was bamboozled into thinking that [Move Forward] actually cared," Chokwan told UPI at her dispensary, Chopaka, near Bangkok's busy Asok intersection. "Unfortunately, as soon as they felt like they could gain older voters or the conservatives, it all changed. I'm actually more scared since the election."

Move Forward, under the leadership of 42-year-old Pita Limjaroenrat, galvanized a younger generation of voters with an ambitious agenda that promised to rewrite the constitution, end military conscription and reform the lese-majeste law that makes it a crime to insult the king.

Since the election, however, the party has had to make concessions to draw support from more conservative factions as it attempts to form a government with Pita as prime minister.

Move Forward's largest coalition partner, the populist Pheu Thai party, campaigned on a strong anti-cannabis stance and promised to ban the recreational use of marijuana. The party traces its roots to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who led a brutal war on drugs before he was ousted in a 2006 coup.

"If [Move Forward] can form the government, I think it's a given that they will relist cannabis," Henning Glaser, a law professor at Thammasat University in Bangkok, told UPI. "Their coalition partners support it, and Pheu Thai is very conservative on this issue."

When cannabis was decriminalized last year, Thai Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul focused on its medical benefits and touted it as a shot in the arm for the agricultural sector.

Thai authorities also picked up on it as a major tourism boost, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and have eagerly marketed luxury spas offering cannabis oil massages and organic farm visits.

Lawmakers, however, failed to pass a proposed Cannabis Act to regulate the industry after decriminalization, leaving businesses to operate in a legal vacuum.

Alongside high-end cannabis lounges and carefully curated shops such as Chopaka, a huge number of street stalls and underground businesses have sprung up, creating a Wild West atmosphere that is helping to fuel opposition.

"The situation is not healthy because we didn't pass the cannabis bill in the parliament," Rattapon "Guide" Sanrak, another longtime activist and the co-founder of the pioneering dispensary Highland, told UPI.

"It's too easy to open and the regulation is very weak," he said. "There is oversupply and authorities cannot enforce the law."

The market has also been flooded with illegal imports, mainly from the United States, business owners say, causing prices to plunge and threatening growers' livelihoods.

"It's a huge amount and the quality is so low," Rattapon said. "It's hurting the growers, who invested a lot of money into equipment and electricity. When they finished their crops, they could not sell at the price that they expected."

The Move Forward Party has framed its position as a necessary move to stabilize the industry. The coalition's platform said it would "reclassify marijuana as a controlled substance" and implement new laws regulating and supporting its beneficial uses.

"The benefit of cannabis will always outweigh the disadvantage of having cannabis," party leader Pita said at a press conference last month. "For the shop owners, if you have followed the rules, if you did everything correctly, there will not be any impact on you. But we have a strong legal mandate to be able to control and slowly adjust Thai society, especially schoolchildren ... to the explosion of cannabis."

At the same time, there are questions about how much the government is going to be able to roll back the progress already made in an industry that is projected by some to be worth $9.6 billion by 2030.

Health Minister Anutin, who leads the election's third-largest vote-getter, the Bhumjaithai Party, remains the industry's biggest political cheerleader and has vowed that his party will not back down on pushing ahead with his signature policy.

Anutin, after casting his ballot while wearing a shirt decorated with marijuana leaves, picked up 71 seats in last month's election -- far more than anticipated and giving him some leverage in the Move Forward coalition's quest to control the 376 seats needed to form a government.

In the meantime, cannabis advocates around Thailand marked the one-year anniversary of decriminalization Friday by holding rallies against relisting cannabis as a narcotic and meeting with Move Forward Party officials to discuss policy options going forward.

"We don't want to see people going to jail for having one gram of cannabis," Rattapon said. "We will fight to have a balanced regulation -- not overregulated and not too weak."

Chokwan is working with advocates to draft a "people's version" of the Cannabis Act, which she said they will present to lawmakers when a new government is seated.

"That way, it can be said that it's not being used as a political weapon," she said. "It's not for one party or the other."

"But it takes time," Chokwan added, "I realized that being in this fight for cannabis is never-ending. And it always takes time to get people to understand."

Chokwan “Kitty” Chopaka, a longtime legalization advocate and entrepreneur, holds a jar of marijuana buds in her Bangkok shop Chopaka. 

Staff at work in Highland, a pioneering cafe, bar and dispensary in the Lat Phrao area of Bangkok.

 
Almost 5,000 dispensaries have opened in Thailand since cannabis was decriminalized. 

Strains on display at Chopaka. 

Marijuana plants grow inside The Dispensary, a high-end shop on Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road.

Kush House sells a wide range of cannabis flowers, oils and edibles on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok

.

Cannabis was decriminalized in Thailand on June 9, 2022.

Dispensary Four Twenty displays cannabis flowers and paraphernalia in Bangkok

Photos by Thomas Maresca/UPI

Use of hallucinogens like mushrooms, PCP doubles among young adults, study finds

By Cara Murez, HealthDay News

Researchers found that between 2018 and 2021, U.S. adults aged 19 to 30 increased their use of mescaline, peyote, psilocybin ("magic mushrooms") and PCP, though not LSD. 

Photo by Hans/Pixabay

Young American adults have doubled their use of non-LSD hallucinogens in just a few years, a new report warns.

Researchers found that between 2018 and 2021, U.S. adults aged 19 to 30 increased their use of mescaline, peyote, psilocybin ("magic mushrooms") and PCP, though not LSD

The prevalence of young adults' past-year use of these drugs was 3.4% in 2018, but it hit 6.6% in 2021.

"However, the prevalence of LSD did not see this dramatic increase, and was around 4% in 2018 and 2021," said study co-author Megan Patrick. She is a research professor at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor and co-principal investigator of the Monitoring the Future study, which focuses on substance use and health.

The study found that use of these non-LSD hallucinogens was greater for males. White young adults used these drugs at a higher rate than Black people of the same age.

Use of these drugs was also greater for those whose parents had a college education, which researchers used as a proxy for socioeconomic status.

The Monitoring the Future study does not identify why young adults used these drugs, whether it might be recreational or because they thought there would be therapeutic benefit. Non-medical hallucinogen use is associated with risks of substance use disorders, injury including self-harm and anxiety, the study authors noted in a university news release.

"The use of psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs for a range of therapeutic uses is increasing, given accumulating yet still preliminary data from randomized trials on clinical effectiveness," said lead study author Katherine Keyes. She is a professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.

"With increased visibility for medical and therapeutic use, however, potentially comes diversion and unregulated product availability, as well as a lack of understanding among the public of potential risks," Keyes added.

Young adults surveyed were asked "How often in the past 12 months have you used LSD ('acid')?" They were also asked if they had used hallucinogens other than LSD. Responses ranged from none to 40 or more.

The findings were published recently in the journal Addiction. The study was funded by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The increase in usage of psilocybin in young adults is a rising concern, the researchers said.

"We will continue to track these trends to see if the increases continue. We need additional research, including about the motives for hallucinogen use and how young adults are using these substances, in order to be able to mitigate the associated negative consequences," Patrick concluded.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more on psychedelic and dissociative drugs.

Copyright © 2023 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

58-foot poison ivy plant in Ontario is officially the world's tallest


A 58-foot vine found growing on a tree on Robert Fedrock's Paris, Ontario, property has been officially named the tallest poison ivy plant in the world by Guinness World Records. 

Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records

June 12 (UPI) -- An Ontario man said a 68-foot-tall poison ivy plant he found growing on his property left him itching for Guinness World Records recognition.

Robert Fedrock of Paris told Guinness World Records he was walking in a wooded area on his property several years ago when he first spotted the large vine growing up a tree.

"It took me a while to figure out what kind of vine it was because the leaves only started about [10 feet] off the ground, and the aerial roots were such a tangled mass that I didn't recognize it as poison ivy right away," Fedrock told GWR.

Fedrock said he suspected the vine might be poison ivy, but he had to dig out some buckthorn to get a better view. The experience left him with a positive identification, as well as poison ivy rashes on his hands, arms, face and stomach.

"I was hoping to avoid it, but some hazards are inescapable, and the cause was worthy," he said. "The oil that causes the rash is also in the dead leaves which litter the area. It seeps into the dirt, and the underground roots also contain it and were likely intermingled with the common buckthorn roots I was digging out."

A friend suggested Fedrock submit the 58-foot vine to Guinness World Records, and the organization confirmed it is the tallest poison ivy plant in the world.

"I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I am fascinated by the natural world and I'm always looking for the most interesting things in the woods; they make good destinations for my trails, but in this case the trail found the interesting thing," he said.

Mayon volcano spews lava as evacuations picks up around Philippines island

Thousands of residents have been evacuated as the Mayon volcano spews ash and lava, in Santo Domingo, Albay province, Philippines, on Monday. 

Photo by Francis Malasig/EPA-EFE

June 12 (UPI) -- Thousands of people have been evacuated in the southeastern region of the Philippines' main island as the Mayon volcano started spews lava and sulfuric gas.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, of Phivolcs, named a nearly four-mile area around the volcano as a "danger zone," rocked by landslides and rockfalls.

Since officials raised the alert level to 3 last week nearly 13,000 people, including 88% of residents in the danger zone have been evacuated, the Philippine Provincial Information Office said.

Phivolcs said it has documented new lava activity from the Mount Mayon crater along with 21 weak volcanic earthquakes and 260 rockfalls in the Mayon Volcano Network. It said that hot, fast-moving flows of ash, hot gases and debris are rushing down volcanic slopes and predicted possible fall on the volcano's south side.

"Lava is being poured out from the vent," Phivolcs Director Teresito Bacolcol said. "It's slow-moving. It's what we call an effusive eruption. The magma shown here is low in gas content and it flows out of the volcano."

Philippines officials placed Albay province was placed under a state of calamity on Friday allowing the government to release response funds to support local residents in the area. Along with residents, authorities evacuated 10,000 farm animals, including cows, goats and pigs.

They were taken to feeding camps and shelters outside the danger zone.

In 2018, the last time the Mayon volcano erupted, thousands of villagers were displaced as they escaped the falling ash. The Philippines is part of the so-called "Ring of Fire" in the Pacific Ocean in which most earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

Philippines’ Mayon Volcano spews lava down its slopes in gentle eruption putting thousands on alert

June 12, 2023

LEGAZPI (AP) — The Philippines’ most active volcano was gently spewing lava down its slopes on Monday, alerting tens of thousands of people they may have to quickly flee a violent and life-threatening explosion.

More than 12,600 people have left the mostly poor farming communities within a six-kilometre (3.7-mile) radius of Mayon Volcano’s crater in mandatory evacuations since volcanic activity increased last week. But thousands more remain within the permanent danger zone below Mayon, an area long declared off-limits to people but where generations have lived and farmed because they have nowhere else to go.

Mayon Volcano belches red-hot emissions down its slope as seen from Legazpi, Albay province, northeastern Philippines on June 11. PHOTO: AP

With the volcano beginning to expel lava on Sunday night, the high-risk zone around Mayon may be expanded should the eruption turn violent, said Teresito Bacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. Bacolcol said if that happens, people in any expanded danger zone should be prepared to evacuate to emergency shelters.

“What we are seeing now is an effusive eruption,” Bacolcol told The Associated Press (AP). “We are looking at this on a day-to-day basis.”

From a distance, AP journalists watched lava flow down the volcano’s southeastern gullies for hours on Sunday night. People hurriedly stepped out of restaurants and bars in a seaside district of Legazpi, the capital of northeastern Albay province about 14 kilometres (8.5 miles) from Mayon, many of them snapping pictures of the volcano that’s a popular tourist draw known for its picturesque conical shape.

Albay was placed under a state of emergency on Friday to allow for quicker distribution of any disaster relief funds in the event of a major eruption.

The volcano had been raised to alert level three on a five-step system on Thursday, warning that the volcano was in a state of high unrest and a hazardous eruption is possible in weeks or days.

With lava flowing down from the volcano gently, Bacolcol said the alert level would stay at three but it could be moved up higher if the eruption turns perilous.

The highest alert, level five, would mean a violent and life-threatening eruption is underway with ash plumes shooting into the sky and superheated pyroclastic streams endangering more communities at Mayon’s lush foothills.

Mayon is one of 24 active volcanoes in the Philippines. It last erupted violently in 2018, displacing tens of thousands of villagers. In 1814, Mayon’s eruption buried entire villages and reportedly left more than 1,000 people dead.

Many of Albay’s people, however, have accepted the volcano’s sporadic fury as part of their lives.

On Sunday morning, throngs of people jogged, biked and walked their dogs in a seaside promenade in Legazpi. The 2,462-metre (8,077-foot) volcano lay hidden in thick clouds at a distance.

Some locals have grown wealthy from the tourism industry that has sprung from Mayon or the gravel, sand and ornamental rocks and boulders found around the volcano in abundance.

Inside the permanent danger zone, authorities and villagers on Sunday were moving cows and water buffaloes from the high-risk farms to temporary grazing areas a safe distance away.

“It’s not only people that should be brought to safety but their farm animals, too,” Albay provincial veterinarian Manny Victorino told AP. He said authorities were taking steps to avoid a deeper economic impact should the volcano erupt.

They gave deworming medicine and vitamins and punched identifying tags onto the ears of several cows and buffaloes for better monitoring.

The cattle evacuations underscore how wide the potential threats are from natural disasters in the Philippines.

The archipelago is lashed by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms a year and is located on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the rim of seismic faults where most of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

In 1991, Mount Pinatubo north of Manila blew its top in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds.

Italy's Campi Flegrei volcano is at risk of eruption, researchers say


Researchers at Italy's National Research Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology say Campi Flegrei volcano, in southern Italy, is at risk of experiencing an eruption, like the one shown here at Mauna Loa in Hawaii. 

File Photo by Bruce Omori/Paradise Helicopters/EPA-EFE

June 9 (UPI) -- The Campi Flegrei volcano in southern Italy is at risk of erupting, researchers at Italy's National Research Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology and University College London said in a new study published in the Communications Earth and Environment journal from Nature.

The ground beneath the coastal town of Pozzuoli has been rising about 4 inches a year for the past decade, investigators reported Friday. They also noted a series of persistent small earthquakes, including 600 recorded in April.

About 360,000 people live on the roof of the volcano, which resembles a gentle depression and is not an obvious mountain. It is located about 9 miles west of Naples, Italy, and is partially submerged beneath the Bay of Pozzuoli.

Researchers at University College London created a simulation "to interpret the patterns of earthquakes and ground uplift, and concluded that parts of the volcano had been stretched nearly to a breaking point."

"Our new study confirms that Campi Flegrei is moving closer to rupture," study lead author Christopher Kilburn of University College London Earth Sciences said in a news release.

"However, this does not mean an eruption is guaranteed. The rupture may open a crack through the crust, but the magma still needs to be pushing up at the right location for an eruption to occur," Kilburn continued.

"This was the first time we have applied our model, which is based on the physics of how rocks break, in real-time to any volcano," Kilburn said, "we will now have to adjust our procedures for estimating the chances of new routes being opened for magma and gas to reach the surface."

The volcano hasn't erupted since 1538 but has experienced increased geological activity in recent decades.

Researchers first used UCL's model in 2017 and say the Campi Flegrei volcano has experienced an increasing number of small earthquakes in line with the model's predictions.

UPDATES

Rising anti-LGBTQ legislation prompts warnings, challenges from rights groups

A rising number of anti-LGBTQ+ rights bills have been introduced in state legislatures controlled by Republicans in 2023.

 File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

June 12 (UPI) -- A rising number of anti-LGBTQ rights laws are being passed and proposed in statehouses across the United States impacting millions of people.

The Human Rights Campaign has declared an extraordinary national state of emergency warning of the dangers posed by hostile legislation, while HRC and Equality Florida in May joined the NAACP in issuing travel advisories about marginalized people traveling to Florida due to hostile legislation and state government actions.

More than 75 anti-LGBTQ bills have been signed into law in 2023, according to the HRC. "LGBTQ+ Americans Under Attack," an HRC report published last week, said 525 bills were introduced in 41 state legislatures over the last year, including more than 220 targeting transgender people.

"These laws are fueled by an anti-LGBTQ Republican establishment -- and coordinated, well-funded extremist groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, Heritage Foundation and the Family Policy Alliance -- insistent on trying to control our families and lives," the report said.


HRC also sounded the alarm about what it sees as simultaneous human rights attacks by many states on teaching Black history and abortion rights while passing anti-LGBTQ rights laws. 

File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

2023 legislation

The ACLU is tracking 63 of these anti-LGBTQ rights laws passed this year.

North Dakota leads with 10 laws targeting LGBTQ rights, followed by Texas with nine, Arkansas with eight and Florida and Tennessee with four each. Republicans control the governor's offices and statehouses in each of those states.

Texas, according to HRC, has seen more than 100 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced with more than 25 advancing through the legislature. Texas accounts for more than 20% of the 2023 bills introduced.

All of the anti-LGBTQ rights laws tracked by the ACLU were passed by states with GOP-controlled legislatures.

The laws, according to the ACLU, target LGBTQ people on civil rights against discrimination, rights to free speech and expression, healthcare, public accommodations and in schools and education.
RELATEDNewest travel advisory on Florida warns of risks faced by LGBTQ community

HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement there is a competing effort to enshrine protections for LGBTQ individuals into law.

"The good news is that for every Florida, there's a Michigan, which became the 22nd state to sign LGBTQ+ non-discrimination protections into law. And for every Texas, there's a Pennsylvania, where because of our partnership and work and advocacy, they are on the cusp of becoming the 23rd state to put LGBTQ+ non-discrimination protections on the books. And for every Tennessee, there's a Minnesota, where they banned so-called 'conversion therapy' this year," Robinson said.

HRC also sounded the alarm about what it sees as simultaneous human rights attacks by many states on teaching Black history and abortion rights while passing anti-LGBTQ rights laws.

"These same states do nothing to ensure the freedom of children to be safe from gun violence and do nothing to protect the freedom of democracy when Black and trans voices are silenced in state legislatures," Robinson said in the HRC statement.

Laws targeting transgender rights have been especially prominent, with anti-trans legislation passed in 22 states in 2023, according to translegilslation.com.

In Montana, HRC said that SB 458 enacted into law adopts an anti-LGBTQ definition of "sex" that now impacts the entirety of Montana law.

That law denies the existence of gender identities other than the cisgender male and female.

"In human beings, there are exactly two sexes, male and female, with two corresponding gametes" the law states. "The sexes are determined by the biological indication of male or female, including sex chromosomes, gonads, and non-ambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth, without regard to an individual's psychological, chosen or subjective experience of gender."

A similar law, HB 239, has been enacted into law that also imposes a binary definition of sex and gender. The bill summary said, "this bill defines 'sex' as a person's immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth and evidence of a person's biological sex."

The surge of anti-LGBTQ legislation has prompted Human Rights Campaign to issue a national state of emergency warning for LGBTQ+ people. 

File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Legal challenges

Last week, a Florida federal judge blocked a narrow portion the state's ban on gender-affirming care after four families challenged the law, alleging that it will cause irreparable harm to transgender young people.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle sided with the families and said "gender identify is real" and gender-affirming treatment is medically necessary.

Lamda Legal is expecting a ruling soon on its lawsuit that challenged Florida's ban on Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care enacted last year. They say they also included a challenge to SB 254, which was signed into law last week.

"Despite this administration's rhetoric to the contrary, this is about a curtailment of fundamental liberties and state government overreach into our schools, families and healthcare," ACLU of Florida Executive Director Tiffani Lennon said in a statement. "These laws do nothing to protect liberty and freedoms. The only 'winners' are those who want to see a bigger, more invasive government."

In Tennessee, a federal judge ruled a state law banning drag performances is an unconstitutional restriction on the freedom of speech.

In May, the ACLU filed suit against Legislative Bill 574, a Nebraska law that bans abortion after 12 weeks and also restricts healthcare for trans youth beginning in October.

The Utah ACLU and the National Center For Lesbian Rights are challenging SB16, a law passed this year banning transgender surgeries for children and teens. The ACLU said it is "riddled with numerous constitutional issues."

SB 480, an Indiana law passed in April barring access to gender-affirming care, is being challenged by a federal suit alleging it violates the U.S. Constitution. The suit filed by the ACLU on behalf of four Indiana families asserts that the law also violates the Medicaid Act and Affordable Care Act by prohibiting essential medical services.

A law in Alabama banning gender-affirming care would put medical professionals in prison for up to 10 years. Two families, with the ACLU's help, are suing to overturn it.

An Alabama law that deprives transgender people of driver licenses that reflect their gender is also being contested in court by the ACLU.

Read More Human Rights Campaign declares LGBTQ+ state of emergency

Bidens tells transgender children 'you are loved' in Pride Month celebration at White House

President Joe Biden hugs Scarlett Harvey, a health and fitness coach from Houston, during a Pride Month celebration event at the White House on Saturday.

 Photo by Nathan Howard/Bloomberg/UPI | License Photo

June 10 (UPI) -- As former President Donald Trump on Saturday prepared to deliver speeches in which he voiced support for anti- "woke" policies targeting the transgender community, President Joe Biden was telling transgender children they are "loved" during Pride Month celebrations at the White House.

"We need to push back against the hundreds of callous and cynical bills and laws introduced in states targeting transgender children, terrifying families, and criminalizing doctors and nurses," Biden said, according to a White House transcript of his speech.

"These bills and laws attack the most basic values and freedoms we have as Americans -- that's not hyperbole; that's a fact: the right to be yourself, the right to make your own health decisions, the right to raise your own children."

Biden said transgender children and their parents should not have to fear for their safety, feel "singled out" or "demonized."

"I want to send a message to the entire community, especially to transgender children: You are loved. You are heard. You are understood. And you belong," Biden said.

Biden's comments came as Trump prepared to speak at two state Republican conventions in Georgia and North Carolina on Saturday, his first appearances since his historic indictment on 37 federal counts.

"On day one, I will immediately sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children," Trump said in North Carolina.

"It's amazing how strongly people feel about that. You see, I'm talking about cutting taxes and people go like that [imitating mild applause] but I talk about transgender and everyone goes crazy!"

President Joe Biden is pictured during a Pride Month celebration event at the White House in on Saturday. 

Lecester Johnson, from left, August Johnson Hamilton, 2, and Kerry-Ann Hamilton listen as US President Joe Biden during speaks a Pride Month celebration event at the White House in Washington, DC on Saturday, June 10, 2023.

An attendee uses a rainbow flag to stay cool during a Pride Month celebration event at the White House in Washington, DC on Saturday, June 10, 2023. 

Photos by Nathan Howard/Bloomberg/UPI | License Photo

Hundreds march in Boston's first Pride parade since 2019


Members of Boston Pride for the People lead the city's Pride parade on Saturday, the first held since 2019. 

Photo by CJ Gunther/EPA-EFE

June 10 (UPI) -- Hundreds of participants turned out Saturday for the first Pride Month parade held in Boston since 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic and a boycott against previous organizers meant Saturday's event was the first time in four years people filled the streets of the city's Back Bay and South End neighborhoods.

Light rain and temperatures between 59 and 65 degrees didn't dampen the mood.




"It's a day of joy and celebration," Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey told WBTS-TV while marching in the parade. "I think we both want everybody in Massachusetts to know that our LGBTQ+ community, you are safe, you are protected, we'll fight always for equality and civil rights."

The 52-year-old is one of two openly-gay governors in the country. She was elected as the state's 73rd governor earlier this year.

"Proud," Healey tweeted, with pictures of the march.

A festival following the parade was scheduled for Boston Common.

"Put on your happy Pride outfit and just show up," Boston Pride for the People Vice President Jo Trigilio told WBUR Radio. "Bring your friends and bring your fabulous outfit."

Los Angeles Pride Parade brings thousands to Hollywood Boulevard

 (15 images)

Thousands filled the streets of Hollywood Boulevard for the Los Angeles Pride Parade, which took place on Monday. Comedian Margaret Cho served as the parade's Icon Grand Marshal, while late actor Leslie Jordan was honored as the Legacy Grand Marshal.

The parade's Icon Grand Marshal, comedian Margaret Cho (L), drives through Hollywood Boulevard. 


The L.A. Pride parade's Grand Marshall float, honoring late actor Leslie Jordan, rolls along Hollywood 


Participants from Disney take part in the parade. 



A bus from Disneyland drives along the parade route. 


A school bus covered with Pride decorations drives down the parade route. 

The parade comes at a time when LGBTQ+ issues are at the center of U.S. culture wars. 



The parade marked the end of the city's weekend-long Pride celebration. 



Participants representing Stonewall take part in the parade. 



A Jeep drives by with signs that read "Protect Trans Youth" and "Stop GOP Bigotry." 



Cars waving Pride flags and signs roll through the parade route. 

A mother holds up a sign that reads "Trans People Belong." 

A participant holds a sign that reads "Protect Abortion Access." 



Supporters watch and cheer on the parade from the sideline. 



More Pride festivities took place at LA Pride Village following the parade. 

Photos by Jim Ruymen/UPI

Thousands of people walk in Jerusalem's 20th LGBTQ pride parade on June 2, 2022. 

11  Photos by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

People march with a long Pride flag

A man holds an Israeli flag.

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Nides attends Jerusalem Pride. 

People march with a long Pride flag.

People march with a giant Pride flag.

Thousands of people walk in Jerusalem. 

Israeli border police guards the Pride Parade amid security concerns. 

Thousands of people walk in the parade.

Marchers hold signs at the parade. 

People wave Pride flags from a balcony. 

Marchers hold signs at the parade.