MUNICH -- (MunichNOW Life) -- Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter and Vice-mayor Josef Schmid made several appearances at the huge Christopher Street Day celebrations on Saturday, July 11th. The city center was packed with cheering and happy celebrants as the annual CSD parade wound its way from St Jakob Platz through the edge of Marienplatz and then around the Alstadt ring. The loop around the Gärtnerplatz center was a particular highlight. 

The clearly happy Mayor commented, "Greetings to everyone on Christopher Street Day!  It is wonderful that people with different sexual orientation can celebrate with each other and thus make a clear sign against homophobia and exclusion. The Rainbow fits perfectly to a colorful city like Munich."

But the colorful parade is not just fun, it's about equality before the law. The motto  for the 2015 celebration is "Family is What We Wake of it". Schmid has always been a champion of gay right during his years on the Munich CSD and he has always tried to open his party to the concerns of gays and lesbians and other minorities.

And it stays in this year in this line: "The question of whether one is suitable for a parental role, is not a matter of sexual orientation," he says. Homosexual couples should have the opportunity to adopt non-biological children. Because: "For children it makes no difference whether they are growing up in same-sex partnerships or in mixed-sex marriages."