EuroPride, held this year in London July 1, was either somewhat of a flop or a smashing success, depending on whose numbers you trust.

Organizers were hoping for a turnout of 500,000 and say they got 750,000. But police said only 40,000 people were present.

The march went down Oxford and Regent streets, to Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, then on to the Houses of Parliament and Victoria Embankment.

Royal Navy sailors marched for the first time – about 40 of them, in uniform.

Mayor Ken Livingstone told the BBC: “What this shows as we march through the city of London – one of the greatest cities on earth – is a city can be a wonderful place to live in with people of every race, religion and sexuality.”

Well-known activist Peter Tatchell carried a poster depicting the pope in drag that said: “Pope ‘Betty’ Benedict XVI – Queen of Homophobia.”

“The pope talks like a gay man, walks like a gay man and dresses like a gay man,” Tatchell said. “If the pope is gay, his hypocrisy is breathtaking. … Is he using homophobia to deflect rumors about his own sexuality?”

Benedict has authorized Vatican documents that condemn gay love as “objectively disordered,” “contrary to natural law,” “debased,” “grave depravity” and a “tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil.”

Some 1.5 million people turned out for the Pride parade in Madrid July 1.

They celebrated the first anniversary of Spain’s becoming one of only four nations where same-sex couples have access to traditional marriage.

The theme of the march was “For diversity: All families matter,” a jab at last year’s “Families do matter” campaign against same-sex marriage by the Family Forum.

In Barcelona, about 40,000 people turned out for Pride. Police said the marchers themselves numbered about 3,500.

Three same-sex couples tied the knot in the Czech Republic July 1 as the nation’s new registered-partnership law came into force.

Two of the weddings were in Ostrava, Moravia, and the third was in Kladno, Bohemia.

“We’ve saved some money together. Now we are sure of not losing it if one of us passes away,” Karel, who married Josef in Ostrava, told the Czech News Agency (CTK).

Vendulka and Stepanka, also married in Ostrava, told CTK they were happy to be registered but hope lawmakers now will move on to approval of same-sex adoption.

The registered partnership law was approved only after the Chamber of Deputies overrode President Vaclav Klaus’ veto of it.

While it extends to registered couples many of the rights and obligations of traditional marriage, it withholds equality in the areas of adoption, pensions, taxation and joint ownership of property, CTK said.

A gay prince in India has been disowned by his parents for coming out in a news article.

Prince Manvendrasinh Gohil’s wealthy royal family once ruled the princely state of Rajpipla in what is now eastern Gujarat state. Gohil, 40, said he previously came out to his parents privately and they sent him to doctors in an effort to set him straight. Coming out in the media, he said, was the last straw for them.

In a newspaper ad disinheriting him, Gohil’s mother, Rukminidevi, declared: “Manvendra ceases to have rights as a son over the family property and the power of attorney issued to him also stands cancelled. Henceforth, no one must refer to my name as mother of Manvendra. If any individual or organisation dares to do so, it will invite contempt proceedings against him.”

Gohil works as the director of a Gujarat HIV organization.

“I have no regrets, since I have found family in the [gay] community,” he said.

Fifty members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin June 30 “to express our dismay over the riots and violence against gay and lesbian marchers in Moscow during a gay pride parade in late May.”

“We believe that the mayor’s public statements and his banning of the parade itself – as well as the fact that provocative and violently anti-gay statements by religious leaders and others went unrepudiated by elected officials – helped create a situation in which violence against gay and lesbian people was in fact more likely to happen, if not inevitable,” the lawmakers said.

“[G]iven reports that some police stood by while gay and lesbian marchers were attacked, it is difficult for us to believe that the police were unable to protect the marchers, but instead were simply unwilling to do so,” they added.

The letter was organized by gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and signed by several House leaders on international-affairs and human-rights issues.

The small May 27 march – an attempt to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and then walk a few blocks for a rally across from Moscow City Hall – resulted in violence, injuries and arrests. The marchers were attacked repeatedly by neo-fascists, skinheads, militant Christians and riot police. About 120 people from both sides were detained.

Activists in 20 cities in 12 nations are planning to take part in a July 19 “International Day of Action Against Homophobic Persecution in Iran.”

“It is shaping up as the biggest-ever event of international solidarity with gay Iranians,” said blogger Doug Ireland, who is helping organize the events.

The date is the first anniversary of the public hanging of teenage boys Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni in the Iranian city of Mashad – either because they were lovers (according to local gays and some international activists) or for the crime of raping a 13-year-old boy (according to the government).

Assistance: Bill Kelley