Tijuana’s June 20 gay Pride parade, the city’s 14th march, was nearly three times bigger – and twice as long – as in any other year.

The turnout was all the more amazing because the city has been hit in the past year by a serious crime wave, as drug cartels and dealers battle for dominance.

In contrast with previous years, almost no gays and lesbians from Southern California crossed the border to join the festivities – this was a purely local and home-grown affair. Many people from San Diego, which is just 15 miles away, have stopped going to Tijuana because of the violence.

Yet the Pride parade was bigger, better, longer, more colorful and more spirited than ever. At least 1,000 people marched or rode in the parade itself – which stretched along seven blocks of Avenida Revolución, the main drag of the city of two million people. More than 10,000 people watched the spectacle pass.

Then, when the parade got to its endpoint, it took an unscheduled right turn, then another right turn, and headed all the way back to the north end of downtown, this time traversing Avenida Constitución. Police, who up to that point had made an effort to keep vehicles moving through the heavily congested downtown, gave up at that juncture and resigned themselves to a traffic jam.

“It’s been the best march that’s taken place in the city of Tijuana ... the biggest and the most participants,” said organizer Lorenzo Herrera. “People have decided to come out, people no longer want to hide their sexual preference. We all have equality. And this year are the federal elections, and we all have decided that our pink vote will be blank. The gay community is not going to vote because the congressional candidates do not have any legislation on ... human rights, eradication of homophobia, or women’s use of the female condom. We don’t know about female condoms here in Mexico because they are expensive.”

One large official banner carried in the parade read: “Tijuana-Ensenada GLBT Pride. 500,000 pink votes also count. We all have the same rights.”

Another large official banner said: “Homophobia must end. Live your pride with dignity. Homosexuality is not a problem, homophobia is.”

A third one read: “Homophobia is intolerance of homosexuality. Equality begins when we recognize that we all have the right to be different.”

Spectators cheered the parade and smiled broadly. A single protester with a hand-held PA system, stationed at the parade lineup location, asserted, repeatedly, “The price of sin is death, according to the Bible.”

Everyone ignored him.