GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Madrid has been Europe's gay capital. Up to 2.5 million gay men and women from Spain and other countries are converging on the Spanish capital to claim their rights in a string of colourful events culminating in a big parade on Saturday evening.

It is the first time that the annual celebrations known as Europride are staged in a southern European country, organizers said.

Europride merges with Madrid's own Gay Pride events, which have grown year after year, becoming a regular part of the summer's entertainment.

Formerly known as a conservative Catholic country, Spain has come a long way since the 1939-75 rule of dictator Francisco Franco, when homosexuality was outlawed.

Spain now stands at the forefront of gay rights after it became one of the world's first countries to equate homosexual marriage fully with the heterosexual one, including the right to adopt children, in 2005.

More than 3,300 gay couples have wed since Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government pushed the reform through against vehement opposition from the Catholic Church.

Spain also allows transsexuals to change names without undergoing operations, and some regions finance sex change operations from public coffers.

"Spain is different," singer Marta Sanchez declared on inaugurating Europride, which echoes the first gay demonstration in New York in 1969.

The first Spanish gay rally was staged in Barcelona in 1977, followed by Madrid in 1981.

Gay Pride is now an established tradition in Madrid's largely homosexual Chueca neighbourhood, where male and female gay and transsexual demonstrators indulge in an annual extravaganza of drag queens, music, leather and feathers.

This time, Madrid hosts a total of more than 200 events including concerts, exhibitions, debates, cabarets and sports contests from June 22 to July 1.

About 200,000 gays from other European countries were expected to attend the events staged under the motto "Europe now! Equality is possible."

Organizers said the total number of Spanish and foreign participants could climb as high as 2.5 million.

Saturday's demonstration promises to be one of the most outrageous ever seen in Madrid, featuring dozens of display carriages.

The Madrid authorities subsidize the events, but gay representatives said a lot still remained to be done to achieve real equality.

"Discrimination, homophobic attacks must come to an end," organizer Alberto Martin said. "We need to be vigilant for equality to happen."