Thousands of people in the capitals of Argentina and Chile joined worldwide gay pride parades to promote equal rights and calling for an end to discrimination.

In Buenos Aires the 23rd such march united more than 30 organisations under the banner of sexual diversity.

Argentina was the first Latin American country to allow same-sex civil unions in 2002, and then same-sex marriages in 2010.

Gay marriage is also legal in Uruguay and Brazil – but not in Chile, where organisers dedicated the parade in Santiago to same-sex families.

The Movement for Homosexual Freedom (MOVILH) welcomed “some progress” on equal rights but denounced what it called the “hateful onslaught” by conservative sectors of society against the rights of same-sex families.