We promised LGBT people world-wide a fabulous, spectacular event. Tatchell said «Whatever the rights and wrongs, this scaling down of WorldPride is a huge embarrassment for London and for our LGBT community. Peter Tatchell and former Pride London Associate Director James-J Walsh in an article for PinkNews criticized the management of Pride London's management of WorldPride. On 5 July, the Metropolitan Police issued a licence regulations notice to all venues in Soho, reminding them that Pride London had no licence for street events in the Soho area, and therefore venues should treat WorldPride as «any normal day».
Instead, the event plans included a Pride Walk (without floats or vehicles), and a scaled-back rally in Trafalgar Square. Consequently, the entertainment and stages were all cut, and licence applications for street parties in Soho withdrawn. The London Evening Standard reported that four contractors from the previous year's Pride event were owed £65,000 in unpaid debts, though this has been denied by Pride London. Pride London organisers had failed to secure the funds necessary for contractors of key areas of the work, and they announced that all activities were being cut or cancelled. However, London's WorldPride event was significantly «scaled back» at an emergency all-agencies meeting on 27 June 2012, nine days before the event was due to take place and after the festival fortnight had started. The parade was cancelled but the Jerusalem Open House announced that it would hold a parade on November 10 after reaching an agreement with the police and the municipality. A week of events took place as scheduled and included five conferences, a film festival, exhibitions, and literary and political events. However, due to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Jerusalem's government cancelled the march, saying there were not enough soldiers to protect marchers. As WorldPride started in 2006, the main parade was scheduled for August 6, but was strongly opposed by Israeli religious leaders from the outset. WorldPride was a key project of Jerusalem’s Open House, the city’s gay community centre.Īfter Jerusalem was selected as the WorldPride 2006 City, the city of Tel Aviv announced that it was cancelling its own annual Pride Weekend in 2006 to make sure that more Israelis attended the main march. It was called «Love Without Borders» as a nod to the many barriers within Israel, and for gays and lesbians in other ways. The first attempt to hold WorldPride in Jerusalem was in 2005, however it was postponed until 2006 because of tensions arising from Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. It was one of the biggest crowds to gather in Rome for decades.Among the scheduled events were conferences, a fashion show, a large parade, a leather dance, and a concert featuring Gloria Gaynor, The Village People, RuPaul and Geri Halliwell. The organisers claimed 250,000 people joined in the march to the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus, two of Rome's most famous ancient sites. Peter's Square during WorldPride 2000 stating, in regards to the event, that it was an «offence to the Christian values of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics across the world.» Pope John Paul II addressed crowds in St. The event was staunchly opposed by Pope John Paul II and seen as an infringement on the numerous Catholic pilgrims visiting Rome for the Catholic Church'sGreat Jubilee. He restored the funding and promised to help with permits, but declined to back down on a demand that organizers remove the city logo from promotional materials.
Hours after his announcement, Rutelli mostly reversed himself in response to harsh criticism from the left. Rome officials had promised to put up USD 200,000 for the event, however bowing to ferocious opposition from the Vatican and conservative politicians, Rome's leftist mayor, Francesco Rutelli, on withdrew logistical and monetary support.