NEW YORK – Rainbow flags were held high along with portraits of the dead as thousands of people marched Sunday in gay pride parades tempered by this month’s massacre at a Florida gay nightclub.
Crowds of onlookers stood a dozen deep along Fifth Avenue for New York City’s parade. Some spectators held up orange “We are Orlando” signs, and indications of increased security were everywhere, with armed officers standing by. An announcer introducing state officials and guests also shouted out, “Love is love! New York is Orlando!”.
In Chicago, 49 marchers at the head of the parade each held aloft a poster-sized photograph of a different Orlando victim as the procession wound through the city. Above each photo were the words, “Never forget.”
Sunday’s parades marked a new milestone: President Barack Obama on Friday designated the site around New York City’s Stonewall Inn as the first national monument to gay rights. A 1969 police raid on the bar helped catalyze the gay rights movement.
MADRID – Spain’s repeat election on Sunday failed to clarify the political future of the European Union’s fifth-largest economy, with the main parties placing roughly the same as in last December’s ballot, which brought six months of stalemate.
The conservative Popular Party, which ruled for the past four years, again collected most votes in the election, but it still fell short of the majority of 176 seats it needs in the 350-seat Parliament to form a government on its own.
With 97 percent of the votes counted late Sunday, incumbent prime minister Mariano Rajoy’s party earned 137 seats in Parliament. That is better than the 123 it won in December, but still means it will need allies if it wants to govern.
MINNEAPOLIS – A hearing will be held in suburban Minneapolis regarding the procedures for determining who stands to inherit part of Prince’s estate. Prince died in April of an accidental drug overdose, and no will has been found. The twice-divorced musician’s parents are dead, and he didn’t have any known children, but he left behind a sister and at least five half-siblings. Others also have come forward to claim he was related to them.
Carver County District Judge Kevin Eide called the second hearing of the case to discuss issues related to the protocols for determining who is an heir, including how DNA testing will be conducted. A DNA test has already ruled out a Colorado prison inmate who had claimed to be Prince’s son, according to a person who saw a sealed document and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to release the information.
However, several other people have emerged to say he was their father, sibling, half-sibling or more distant relative. The hearing will not determine if any individual is a legal heir – that will be the subject of future proceedings. Claimants will have the chance to raise objections during Monday’s hearing.
Associated Press
