Tel Aviv's Gay Pride is on Friday....

I hope they have a great time!

Alon Elbakri, 15, came out of the closet about a year ago when he told his mother that he was gay.

"All my life I've been attracted to boys," he said. "I'd go to gay sites on the Internet, but I kept fighting myself, saying 'I like girls,' even though it wasn't true. Last year, in eighth grade, I underwent a change and realized that's what I am."

Nor is Elbakri exceptional: A survey conducted by Dr. Guy Shilo of Tel Aviv University indicates that the average age at which Israeli gays come out of the closet is declining. The agonizing that plagued most gays until a few years ago now mostly ends during high school.

"We're witnessing a social change," Shilo said. "At the end of the 1990s, the average coming-out age was 22. Today, it's 16."

On Friday, Elbakri will join tens of thousands of gays, bisexuals and transgenders at Tel Aviv's 11th annual Gay Pride Parade. The white city will turn pink as the parade, financed by the municipality, sets out at 1:30 P.M. from the gay community center at Meir Park, after a happening and an international gay tourism fair in the park.

Massive traffic jams are expected, as several city thoroughfares will be closed to traffic for the parade, which will be guarded by police, Border Police and civil defense volunteers. Bograshov, Ben-Yehuda and Ben-Gurion streets will be closed to traffic from 11:30 A.M. to 5 P.M., as will the streets leading to them. The parade will proceed from King George St. to Bograshov St., Ben-Yehuda St. and Ben-Gurion Boulevard and finally end up at Gordon beach, where a huge party with singers and DJs will be held from about 3 P.M. to sunset. The event will culminate in five simultaneous gay marriages.