San Francisco ? Undeterred by recent setbacks in the push to legalize same-sex marriage, tens of thousands of festively dressed people marched in parades around the country Sunday to celebrate the 35th anniversary of gay pride.

People celebrated in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta and other cities, though the event comes during a tough period for gay-rights advocates. A bill to legalize same-sex marriage died this year in the California Assembly, and many states have passed or are pursuing constitutional amendments outlawing gay marriage.

“I’m here to let the rest of the world know that we’re here and we want to be seen,” said Clarence Smelcer, 43, an AIDS activist watching the San Francisco parade. “We’re part of everyone’s lives and the parade is a wonderful way to show it.”

Members of Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays march with their signs in St. Louis' PrideFest 2005 Parade. The annual event attracted thousands of people on Sunday.

Gay pride is a virtual holiday in San Francisco, and thousands gathered early for the parade, including men in kilts sporting rainbow-colored wigs, cross-dressers in kimonos and heterosexual couples waving rainbow flags.

The annual pride parades commemorate the Stonewall uprising of 1969, a series of fights between gays and police in New York widely considered the beginning of the gay-rights movement. The parades began the next year in 1970.

Many in the San Francisco crowd wore stickers that read, “We All Deserve The Freedom to Marry.”

“Anytime you have a big group of people screaming and hollering, people will pay attention,” said Jorge Vieto Jr., 27, who left Costa Rica because of discrimination against gays. “Marriage should be an equal opportunity, not a heterosexual right.”

Gay-pride parades also were under way around the world this weekend, in countries including France, Canada, Mexico, Greece, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama and Israel.