by Rex Wockner
International News Briefs
City officials in Riga, Latvia, granted permission for a gay pride parade, then rescinded it, then were overruled by a court.
In the end, around 600 people from 20 countries marched in the vicinity of Vermane Garden park on May 16.
The Baltic Pride Parade moves each year among Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The decision to withdraw approval for the parade came after 34 members of the 60-member City Council called for the march to be banned. The council's Committee on Meetings and Demonstrations then determined that allowing the march to go ahead would imperil "the health and morality of society."
The Riga Administrative Court disagreed and ordered that the parade be allowed.
Attempts to ban Riga's pride parade in previous years also failed after courts said the Latvian Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights give gay people the right to march.
