by Rex Wockner
Court: Latvian pride ban was illegal
Latvia's Riga Regional Administrative Court ruled April 12 that the Riga City Council's ban on last year's gay-pride parade was illegal.
The council had cited safety concerns in prohibiting the march and was backed up by the District Administrative Court.
Pride spokeswoman Kristine Garina said the new ruling "shows that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly do exist in Latvia, and that the right of the LGBT community to organize a march has been evaluated as having more importance than the desire of some other people to push a certain community out of the public arena by means of threats and violence."
Because of last year's ban, organizers instead held a religious service and meetings at a local hotel. They were confronted by Christian, ultranationalist and neo-Nazi protesters who pelted them with eggs, rotten food and human feces.
The GLBT group Mozaika, which organizes the pride events, said it may seek financial compensation from the City Council to cover the administrative and legal expenses related to the ban.
In 2005, gays were allowed to stage the nation's first pride parade. About 150 marchers were attacked by some 1,000 anti-gay protesters who hurled bottles and rotten eggs, blocked the streets and screamed "No sodomy" and "Gays fuck the nation."
This year's pride march is scheduled for June 3.
First pride set for small Saskatchewan city
The small Canadian city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, will see its first gay pride parade June 9.
Some local Christians unsuccessfully lobbied the City Council to block the march. Preacher Rick Potratz warned of "men walking down public streets half-naked … wearing nothing but a G-string."
Prince Albert, population 41,460, is Saskatchewan's third-largest city after Saskatoon and Regina. It is located near the geographic center of the province, 88 miles (141 km) north of Saskatoon.
Court: Aruba must recognize Dutch same-sex marriages
The Caribbean island of Aruba, which is part of the Netherlands, must recognize Dutch same-sex marriages, the Netherlands' Supreme Court ruled April 13.
The decision came in the case of a Dutch woman and an Aruban woman, Esther and Charlene Oduber-Lamers, who married in the Netherlands in 2001, settled in Aruba, and were told by local authorities that their marriage was not legal.
The Common Court of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba previously ruled in the couple's favor but the island's government appealed, with Prime Minister Nelson Oduber calling it a moral issue.
Aruba has a population of 71,566.
Charges dropped against Moscow pride organizer
Police dropped all charges against chief Moscow gay pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev on April 11.
Alekseev was arrested last May 27 during the disastrous attempt to stage the city's first public gay-pride events. He was charged with a "breach of order in the organization or conduct of a gathering, meeting, demonstration, march or picket" when he and other activists tried to lay flowers at the Kremlin's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
"Police could not find any evidence that I breached Russian legislation [so] they had nothing else to do than to close all proceedings against me without official accusations or administrative sanctions," Alekseev said.
After Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and a court banned last year's planned first pride parade, activists tried to deliver the flowers and to hold a rally across from City Hall. They were violently attacked at both sites by neofascists, skinheads, Christians and riot police.
Luzhkov has banned this year's planned parade as well, saying: "[T]hrough the gay parade you promote some uncertain people and it becomes an invitation to acquire this quality of the sexual minorities. [It is saying that] this is OK, that's normal, this is useful. Our view is that it is wrong and unusual.
"Last year, Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as satanic. We did not let the parade take place then, and we are not going to allow it in the future. … Some European nations bless single-sex marriages and introduce sexual guides in schools. Such things are a deadly moral poison for children."
On April 6, Luzhkov's press secretary, Sergei Tsoi, said activists planning this year's march on May 27 are "aggressive" and "play with fire."
The gay community's "most aggressive members try to impose their convictions on millions of Moscow citizens who deny their lifestyle," he told the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. "If they disregard [the ban], they will assume overall responsibility for all possible consequences — and it is dreadful to predict what they may be."
Pride organizers have a suit pending in the European Court of Human Rights seeking a determination of their right to march and $26,000 in damages related to last year's fiasco.
Moldova bans pride again
City officials in the Moldovan capital Chisinau have banned all public gay pride activities for the third year in a row, saying such events threaten public order, offend Christian values and promote sexual propaganda.
The decision flouts a recent Supreme Court ruling which declared the 2006 ban illegal.
"Not only [do] the Chisinau city authorities openly disregard the rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, but they act illegally in breach of the decision of the supreme judicial body of their own country," said Christine Loudes, policy director for the European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay Association.
Swedish Member of the European Parliament Maria Carlshamre added, "With decisions like this, Moldovan authorities are taking further steps away from the rest of-*Europe."
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said it "considers unjustified the refusal of the Chisinau city hall to authorize a march of solidarity by [pride organizing group] GenderDoc-M reasoning that it is a possible threat to public order, as this motive is disproportional with the right to freedom of assembly, guaranteed by … the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms."
GenderDoc-M plans to ignore this year's ban and "go out on the street at the time indicated in the application to City Hall to protest against local authorities' violation of basic human rights."
"All the responsibility for the consequences of this action we will lay on those taking the decisions blatantly violating basic human rights," said Executive Director Boris Balanetkii.
Other pride activities will take place on private property, including cultural events, concerts, forums, a soccer match and the Moldovan premiere of The Vagina Monologues.
Activists from numerous nations have said they will join in the late-April festivities to support the Moldovan GLBT community — including individuals from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and Ukraine.
