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300 march in Latvia

by Rex Wockner

International News

After marching inside a fenced-in park last year, gay pride celebrants took to the streets of downtown Riga, Latvia, May 31 for a real parade this year.
About 300 marchers and 400 anti-gay demonstrators turned out for the festivities. Four counterprotesters and one marcher were arrested.
Police blocked the street at both ends of the march as well as streets that intersected the route. At the parade's end, the marchers left in buses.
A day earlier, Latvian President Valdis Zatlers had urged tolerance for LGBT people.
"I think that the main thing for people is not only to stop being intolerant, but also to understand others," he told local media. "We are talking only about tolerance, but we seldom talk about trying to form an understanding and comprehension vis-a-vis any minority group, no matter what kind."
Zatlers also expressed support for granting spousal rights to same-sex couples.
"If some people have a common household and … the common life of a single gender, then we certainly need to resolve these aspects of social privileges — inheritance, the right of the spouse to enjoy certain privileges and so on," he said. "That is what needs to be done, and it would be a gesture of understanding, comprehension and good will."
Last year, armed with a court ruling that the ban on the 2006 parade was unconstitutional, more than 500 GLBT people marched inside Vermanes Park under heavy police protection.
In 2006, after the City Council banned the parade, organizers held a service at a church and meetings at a hotel. The attendees were attacked by Christian, ultranationalist and neo-Nazi protesters who pelted them with eggs, rotten food and feces.
In 2005, about 150 marchers attempted to march in the streets. They were outnumbered by around 1,000 anti-gay protesters who hurled insults, bottles and eggs; blocked the street; and forced the parade to be rerouted. The protesters chanted "No sodomy" and "Gays fuck the nation."

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