In the last year, we’ve seen civil marriage rights for gays and lesbians both granted and subsequently taken away from Californians, while also witnessing marriage legalized in 10% of U.S. states and even more countries in Europe. We’ve also seen a further explosion in LGBT pride celebrations across the globe. This year marks the first pride celebrations in China, several countries throughout Central America, and even Tahiti. There were multiple organized events for LGBT rights in cities across India, Russia, Cuba, and nearly 100 new pride celebrations throughout Brazil. Check out the map of over 1,000 LGBT pride events across the globe at pride.yahoo.com for more info.

On the home front, we had a great time again sponsoring San Francisco’s International LGBT Film Festival this past week. In commemoration of Stonewall’s 40th birthday, we hid free Yahoo! Mail Plus and Flickr Pro packages under the seats of 40 lucky audience members at two sold-out screenings at the historic Castro Theatre. It was an amazing experience to see a packed-house of 1,400 people simultaneously shout out the classic Yahoo! yodel when the prize packages were announced. Congrats to all the winners!

However, that was just the run-up to our big giveaway this pride season. We’re excited to announce that Yahoo! is going to send two winners on a week-long trip to the 2010 Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras in beautiful Sydney, Australia, next summer (that’s February, a nice treat for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere). Mardi Gras is a spectacular citywide pride event in Sydney, and the prize-winners will arrive in time for the big parade and extravaganza. You can enter to win either online at http://pride.yahoo.com through July 1, 2009, or in person at the Yahoo! booth at the San Francisco LGBT Pride Festival this Sunday, June 28. Please come visit us near the corner of Grove and Larkin Streets on City Hall Plaza, say hi to Yahoo!, and enter for a chance to win.

Again, Yahoo! wishes you and your loved ones happy LGBT Pride 2009!

Drew Geishecker
Co-chair, Yahoo! Pride

The results surprised even us, as we discovered official Pride celebrations in all 50 U.S. states and in 64 other countries. From the world’s largest LGBT Pride Parade – that would be in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with an estimated five million attendees in 2008 – to the more understated Rainbow Kite Flying day in cities throughout China, celebrations of our community’s diversity occur in many different flavors.

With Pride events scattered around the globe and throughout the year, we thought our local festivities would be the perfect opportunity to re-launch Yahoo!’s annual Pride site with some fun new additions at its first permanent destination: pride.yahoo.com.

Features of this new site include:

• The World Map of Pride – A resource for locating and browsing the breadth of LGBT Pride celebrations around the globe. Search the world map for festivals, parades, film fests, and other major events near you … and invite your friends to join in.
• The Past Century in LGBT History and Civil Rights – An interactive timeline exploring many of the key milestones for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community over the last 100 years.
• Visions of Pride on Flickr – Photos from Yahoo! users of the various Pride celebrations around the world.
• And easy access to the latest LGBT-related news, sports, entertainment, and community resources.

If you’re in the area, please also plan to join the 500,000+ people at San Francisco’s 38th annual LGBT Pride Celebration and Parade this Sunday, June 29. We’ll be demo’ing our shiny new Pride site and handing out some fabulous gifts at Yahoo!’s booth on Grove Street between Larkin and Polk. We’re also a sponsor of the 32nd annual San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival which runs from June 19-29. We’d be thrilled to see you there.

Happy Pride!

Drew Geishecker
Yahoo! Network Services
Co-chair, Yahoo! Pride