Costa Rica celebrated the International Day Against Homophobia on May 17,  and both online and offline people celebrated sexual diversity.

Puppy at the Pride Parade. Image by @jdclarke00 used with permission.

On Sunday May 15, the gay pride festival took place in the capital city of San Jose. Mauricio Rojas [es] made a video showing the highlights of the event including music, vendor stands, dancing and speeches:

The festival was organized as part of the initiative the City of San Jose has begun to make the city free of discrimination, in this specific case, against people of diverse sexual orientation, as was stated in the press conference announcing the festival [es].

Humorous webshow I can't pronounce the R [es] also produced a video for the day, in this case, mocking Juan Jose Vargas, a Costarican politician turned preacher who last year [es] made the news by advertising his center for healing people of homosexuality.

In this video, they make a fake interview with Juan Nose Vainas (Juan I Don't Know Stuff) where he shows the results of the treatment: consisting of training his students in catcalls, fighting for men, oggling men and walking in high heels for women and “getting lucky” with the opposite sex.

Blog ChepeStyle [es], which writes about events in San Jose, was also at the Festival. E. Fernandez wrote a narrative of the event which includes pictures and the following insight:

Estar ahí me hizo entender un poco más porqué el arcoíris es considerado símbolo de la comunidad LGBT (Lesbiana, Gay, Bisexual y Transgénero). Como decimos por acá para gustos hay colores y este símbolo nos llama a apreciar la diversidad y belleza de todos los colores… y todos los gustos.