50 years of Pride: Knitters fly a handmade giant rainbow flag

Fifty years ago- on June 28, 1970- the first Pride march took place in New York City on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. This year a group of women in Spain has banded together to use their crocheting skills to create a huge rainbow flag to celebrate equality for all.

Cordoba: A long rainbow flag flutters of the over a street in the centre of the town of Aguilar de la Frontera in the province of Cordoba in southern Spain.

It is a celebration of people who identify as LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex) and it was created by a group of 14 local women.

It was the brainchild of a town councillor Carmen Surera Maestre, who looks after Equality and Women's issues in Aguilar de la Frontera.

All the crocheters suffer from fibromyalgia which causes chronic pain and belongs to the local Fibromyalgia Association.

Normally they meet up to practice Pilates, yoga and crochet, as movement helps ease their symptoms.

However during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, they have been confined to their homes and they desperately wanted to make a difference, as Mari Cosano explains.

"During the lockdown, we volunteered to make medical masks and gowns. So they said that at that time there was no material to make masks, at that time we wanted to help and thought, What can we do? Then Carmen had the idea and we all agreed. All of us who know how to crochet signed up."

"This (flag) represents that it be opened at once, that people stop suffering, to end the suffering of those who are that not able to come out of the closet (be openly themselves). We want to make this visible, we want it to open, we want to open awareness, that diversity is what there is," she adds.

The town council donated the 24 giant balls of yarn needed for the project, which took the team of 14, two and a half months to do.

Team member Manoli Prieto Muriana says the project helped them cope with the limitations of lockdown.

The street's traditional white buildings are off-set by the colourful creation which stretches for 52 meters and is 2.5 meters wide.

Carmen Surera Maestre, Town Councillor for Equality and Women, Aguilar de la Frontera says the measurements were set by the width of the street.

The flag will remain throughout the summer to promote equal rights for the LGTBI in rural communities, according to local officials.

Pride grew out of the Stonewall riots of 1969 which followed a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City. The Stonewall was one of several, lesbian and gay bars in the area.

A year later, on 28 June 1970, the first Pride march was held to mark the event in New York City. Subsequently, Pride events have taken place in June and July in towns and cities around the globe.

(With inputs from AP)