Foreigners to join Riga, Warsaw prides

Activists from several nations will travel to gay pride parades in Riga, Latvia, and Warsaw, Poland, this year to support the local celebrations, which have seen aggression and hostility from residents and government officials in previous years.
Amnesty International said it will bring up to 100 members from 11 countries to Riga's parade June 3 "as a demonstration of solidarity with Latvian LGBT people."
There also will be a "big delegation" from Sweden, said Jonas Hansson of the Swedish gay group RFSL, the National Federation for Sexual Equality.
Hansson said the 65-person delegation will include Members of the European Parliament Goudin and Maria Carlshamre, Swedish MPs Maria Kornevik Jakobsson, Camilla Lindberg, Borj Vestlund, Marianne Berg, LiseLotte Olsson and Helena Leander, and members of RFSL, LGBT Liberals, LGBT Social Democrats, the Feminist Initiative, LGBT Amnesty, the Gay Police Association, LGBT Students, the Swedish Armed Forces, Stockholm Pride and the gay cultural group Tupilak.
Swedish and Euro MPs also will march May 19 in Warsaw, as will Sweden's minister for European Union affairs, Cecilia Malmstrom, who also will deliver an address to a pride conference.
During both Riga and Warsaw prides, the local Swedish Embassy will host a reception for members of GLBT organizations and local and visiting VIPs.
Although RFSL (Riksforbundet for Sexuellt Likaberattigande) translates as National Federation for Sexual Equality, the group calls itself the Swedish Federation for Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian and Transgender Rights in English press releases.