A March for Equality by the gay community and their friends and supporters of human rights took place in a fenced-in park in downtown Riga on June 3. This time, the city allowed the march (a court overturned last year's ban) and there was very heavy police protection (robocop clad riot police ready for anything). The most curious incident was the appearance of some anti-gay protestors just as the march was about to start. Their shouting caused most of the press and camerapeople to run to one of the fences, where the counterdemonstrators shouted obscene abuse in Latvian (and some pidgin language, an attempt at English or German). Most of the press were foreign and looked at the counterdemonstrators with some bafflement, until a young lady with a camera asked me what they were saying. I, being a colleague who respects accuracy above propriety said "they say we in here are all monkey and animals and they want you, or any one of us, to suck them off..:)
Here is my best effort video record of what happened. Sorry about the screwed-up subtitles. The first speaker is Linda Freimane, a board member and spokesperson for Mosaika, the Latvian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transperson organization (and the friends and supporters of this community).
For the record, I attended this event because I am a libertarian, and I don't belong to any sexual minority. Strangely enough for Latvia, this den of hatred and ignorance, I am not compelled to hate and attack gays just because I am heterosexual.
