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Pride reverberates across Europe |
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Monday, 30 June 2008 |
 Half a million Parisians and tens of thousands of Berliners took to their city streets as part of Pride celebrations in Europe last week.
The Czech Republic’s first Pride Parade was marred by tear gas and fireworks attacks from a mob of about 150 anti-gay protesters, and in Bulgaria, petrol bombs, stones and squid failed to stop about 150 marchers from celebrating Pride in the capital, Sofia.
This year, the Berlin Pride parade began for the first time in the east of the once-divided city, heavy rain failing to dampen spirits.
In Paris, Pride marchers demanded the removal of discrimination from schools and protested against sexism and racism as well as homophobia.
And in Berlin, marchers included some “effectively nude” participants, exotic drag queens and a 95-year-old survivor of Buchenwald concentration camp, Rudolf Braza.
"I must say that I feel as though I were in paradise in this democratic society," Braza told Earthtimes.org.
Marchers placed a single rose at the newly-unveiled monument to gay victims of the Nazis.
About 20 people were injured and three people arrested at the Czech parade in the city of Brno.
Among the 500 people gathered for the event were tennis star and lesbian icon Martina Navratilova and the Czech minister for human rights.
The 150 anti-gay protesters were also outnumbered by 200 police. The Czech authorities last week banned two anti-Pride marches.
In a statement on the Pride parade's website organisers said:
"We want to contribute to the public discussion on issues ranging from the rights of same-sex parents, through the absence of equal rights for individual adoptions for registered partners, bullying of LGBTIQ youth, the invisibility of LGBTIQ seniors, to severe violations of transgender persons amounting to breaches of fundamental human rights and freedoms."
Sixty skinheads and right-wing nationalists were arrested, including Bulgarian National Union leader, Boyan Rasate, who had organised a "week of intolerance" to coincide with Pride.
The Sofia Pride event also attracted straight supporters, who wore T-shirts with the slogan, “Beware of whom you hate, it might be someone you love.”
IMAGE: A Parisian sister shows her Pride. Photo: Ernest Morales, Flickr.com
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