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Riga
Baltic Pride 2009
Colin
de la Motte-Sherman reports on a
march that went ahead in the Latvian
capital, Riga, in spite of attempts to
prevent it.
Despite the machinations
of the Right-wing conservative councillors
and priestly demands in court, a
demonstration in Riga for human rights to
include LGBT rights went ahead – in the
safety of a completely fenced-in park.
The park was also
surrounded by a ring of police – who, as far
as I could see, behaved
impeccably.
Andris
Grīnbergs
Attempts were made to ban
the march by a majority of city councillors,
who, as we were told repeatedly, were
conscious of fighting local and European
election campaigns. This doesn’t say much
for the electorate, if councillors think
such actions will win votes. The majority
threatened to sack the council official –
director of the Riga City Council, Andris
Grīnbergs – who had allowed the march, if he
didn’t change his mind.
Mozaika, the Latvian LGBT
group, went to the Riga administrative
court, and heard – despite the rowdy
behaviour of the mainly Christian-backed
opposition, which led to their removal from
the court – what everyone with a grain of
understanding of the situation knew: there
was no legal basis for banning this march.
Public discussions were
held with representatives from Estonia and
Lithuania and the representatives of two
political organisations – who at present
seem to be of little importance. However,
the nature of Latvian politicians was
revealed when one of the “supporting”
politicians took time out during lunch to
say there was no discrimination against LGBT
people in Latvia – except when they make
demonstrations.
Despite a few incidents
before the march (neo-Nazis in the cinema
where the LGBT films were due to be shown,
verbal harassment at a disco), the speeches
at a reception to launch the events from the
Danish, Dutch and British ambassadors among
others – and, importantly the participation
of some of them in the march – more or less
ensured the safety of the marchers.
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British
Ambassador |
With around 75
participants from 23 European countries, the
Amnesty International delegation was very
obvious, and Mozaika thanked Amnesty for
their close cooperation.
The Amnesty delegation
was led by representatives from the
International Secretariat, who arranged
matters to ensure the safety of participants
with an almost military precision, including
a briefing, debriefing, not wearing Amnesty
T-shirts before getting to the park, and
walking in small, mixed-gender groups on the
way to and from the park.
The loud, screaming,
largely religion-inspired opposition outside
the park fence seemed to be partly from the
New Age religious group, but undoubtedly
included Catholics inspired by their
archbishop, known for his homophobomania.
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