Singer and gay icon Liza Minnelli danced on a float in Paris’ gay Pride parade June 27.

Minnelli is the daughter of gay icon Judy Garland, whose death five days before the Stonewall Riots 40 years ago is thought to have contributed to the foul mood of the gays who decided to fight back against the police raid of the Stonewall Inn.

“Freedom,” Minnelli shouted from the float. About 700,000 people took part in the festivities.

“We knew that she (Minnelli) had a concert this evening in Paris but when her agent told us that she could come, we thought it was a joke,” Pride spokesperson Philippe Castel told Agence France-Presse.

Berlin also held Pride on June 27. About 550,000 people turned out, reports said.

About 2,000 people marched in Jerusalem’s gay Pride parade June 25 without incident, but for one tossed egg.

Previous years’ marches have been met with violent protests, stabbings and the arrest of a man carrying a bomb.

Police protection was reduced this year, to a mere 1,600 officers.

A café in Ljubljana, Slovenia, that was holding a Pride week cultural event was damaged June 25 by rock-throwing, hate-spewing anti-gays.

Eight men carrying stones and torches attacked Café Open and shouted that gay people should be killed.

They also set upon gay activist Mitja Blazic outside the café, injuring his head and burning him. Activists said Blazic was “severely beaten up” and required hospital attention.

Around 300 people marched in the second gay Pride parade in Sofia, Bulgaria, on June 27, twice as many as last year.

Police and private security officers, hired by Pride organizers, protected the marchers to prevent a recurrence of last year’s violence, when skinheads and right-wing extremists attacked the parade with bottles, rocks, eggs, firecrackers, smoke bombs and Molotov cocktails, resulting in 80 arrests.

This year’s march, which traveled from the National Palace of Culture to the Red House debate club, encountered nothing more serious than some booing.

Organizers called for a law to ban anti-gay discrimination in employment.

Ireland’s government has introduced a civil partnership bill in Parliament, where it should pass easily. The law is expected to be in effect by the end of the year.

The measure extends to registered same-sex couples nearly all rights and obligations of marriage.

However, most gay activist groups have denounced the plan, saying it amounts to second-class status for same-sex couples. The organizations have cited inequalities in the areas of inheritance, taxation and children’s rights.

“The bill is forcing lesbians and gay men to accept a second-rate set of rights, and ensures that lesbian and gay relationships will be regarded as inferior to married couples,” said the group MarriagEquality, urging that gay couples be granted access to marriage instead.

The group Equals likewise complained, “Civil partnership will create a two-tier society and will legislate gay and lesbian people into inequality.”

On June 26, activists protested against the measure outside Leinster House, seat of the two houses of Parliament, the Dáil Éireann and the Seanad Éireann.

Activist Will St. Leger climbed atop a pillar and remained there for three hours before being arrested. He was later released without charge.

Protester Lisa Connell chained herself to the Dáil gates. Police used a bolt cutter to remove her, then ordered her to leave the scene.

Meanwhile, thousands of people took part in Dublin’s gay pride Parade June 27. Marchers chanted: “What do we want? Marriage. When do we want it? Now.”

Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus on June 26 vetoed a bill that banned from schools and public places information that agitates for homosexual, bisexual or polygamous relations.

The vote for the bill in the Seimas (parliament) had been 67-3 with 67 MPs not voting. Seventy-one votes would be needed to override Adamkus’ veto.

The proposed “Law on the Protection of Minors Against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information” has been denounced by Amnesty International, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, foreign governments and various arms of the pan-European bureaucracies.

Should it become law, the measure likely would end up before the European Court of Human Rights, where it probably would be found to violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

Assistance: Bill Kelley