STOCKHOLM, Sweden--It was more than the traditional Kurdish rallies which Sima Jaafari occasionally used to join. He said he had never been to such a "glamorous demonstration", nor had he heard so much "happy" music at the same political event. "It's a great feeling. I love to stand for those who dare to stand for themselves," Jaafari, a Kurd from Iranian Kurdistan, told Rudaw while marching in Stockholm's annual LGBT parade called Stockholm Pride Festival. The final parade usually takes place at the end of a weeklong activity in which the LGBT community comes together and sends its "peace message" by arranging shows, concerts and other events for the wider public. More than 400,000 people attended this year's festivities including some 50,000 LGBT members who took part in different sections of the festival. "I know of many cases in Iran where gay people have been condemned to death for their sexual orientation," said Jaafari with a large Kurdish flag wrapped around his body. "But their number is growing worldwide and soon no one can stop them from exercising their freedom," he added. Ala Rayani from the Kurdish friends of the LGBT said their group had been marching with Pride for the past seven years and their numbers had increased. "Initially people would react and say why we took the Kurdish flag to the festival, but I think it's more common now with no unpleasant reactions," Rayani told Sweden's Kurdish radio. "We are not marching on behalf of a certain Kurdish political party, we are doing it for all the Kurds," he said. Despite the growth of acceptance of the LGBT community in recent years, world data shows that it is still unsafe to be gay in many countries including in the West. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, current data show that around 25 percent of lesbian and gay people in the US experience hate crimes within their lifetimes. Homosexuality is still largely taboo also in much of Kurdish society with extremely few public spaces for expression. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) surprised its voters in Turkey's 2015 elections when it announced it will dedicate a 10 percent quota for the LGBT community in addition to 50 percent quota for women in the party structure. Jaafari plans to continue supporting the LGBT community and will march in such occasions as much as he can. "Some of my best friends are gay and I really love them as much as my other friends," he said proudly as he repeated the slogans of the pride in Swedish: "Vi är lika; vi är olika" [We're alike; we're unlike].
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