Members of the Israeli lesbian community kiss during the annual Gay Pride parade in Tel Aviv on June 12, 2009. An estimated 20,000 people took part in the gay parade, dancing, swaying and sashaying through the streets of the sizzling beachside city. Isreal repealed a ban on consensual same-sex sexual acts in 1988 and as the heart of Israel’s cultural life and a bastion of secularism, Tel Aviv has been hosting the annual parade for the past nine years with relatively few objections from the country’s religious community, unlike similar events in Jerusalem which saw violence and even one stabbing. AFP PHOTO/MARCO LONGARI (Photo credit should read MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images)
