History of Pride and Lesbian and gay marches in Eastern Europe 2008
This document is formed from a collection of sources, including NGO groups across Eastern Europe and Amnesty International sectionsBelarus
19996-9 September Pride Festival, Minsk
(First Belarusian Pride Festival – unauthorized, but 500 people still attended)
Met with many ‘accidents’ involving police brutality. One of the parties was attacked by special police.
2000
6-9 September Pride Festival, Minsk
(Pride March)
The march was banned by the authorities 24 hours before it was due to take place. Most of the events were banned under the pressure from Russian Orthodox Church. Later the authorities acted swiftly to prevent any of the other programmed events from taking place.
Uniformed police arrived at the inauguration performance, which had already begun. They ordered the lights to be shut off and gave participants only minutes to evacuate the building. Police then followed the festival participants through the street to another club which they then ordered to shut its doors, trapping other customers inside. The following day, the authorities shut down the festival office and closed the entire building in which it was housed.
2001
7 September, Minsk
(Pride march – 300 people attended)
The first ever authorised gay pride march on the former territory of the former USSR, snaked its way from the parliament building and finished at President Lukashenka’s residence, passed by without incident. However, it helped to re-elect the incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko. It took place just two days before presidential elections, the government-controlled media smeared the opposition by associating it with homosexuality.
2002
20-22 September Pride Festival, Minsk
Purely indoor events
From 2002-2007 banned by the authorities.
2008
TEMA Information Center for LGBT people is planning a series of small-scale indoor events in Minsk and Gomel in September.
Bulgaria
No plans to organise a Gay Pride event in Bulgaria
“The political situation in Bulgaria is not very supportive to the LGBT movement and holding a gay pride will only do harm to the LGBT people.” Aksinia Gencheva of Gemini
2007
Council of Europe’s “All Different – All Equal” bus tour
Sofia was designated as a stop-off point for the tour, which was due to highlight discrimination. However, interested NGOs were only told of the date the day before. The only media present at the event were from a television channel whose offices were located opposite where the bus stopped and happened to see it.
Croatia
2002
29 June Gay Pride in Zagreb
(200-300 people attended)
Counter-demonstrators throw eggs, watermelons and stones, but swift reaction from the police prevented any injuries. At the end of the march, police protection was no longer available and a number of participants were attacked, 11 people were injured and police arrested 27.
2003-2005 Pride events in Zagreb pass off with little problems.
2006
Gay Pride in Zagreb
(300 people attended, 500 police present)
No organised counter-demonstration, but there were reports of offensive language from bystanders and individual police officers. The park was surrounded by a metal fence with only narrow (1.5 metres wide) entrances.
2007
7 July Gay Pride in Zagreb
(200 people attended, 500 police)
Counter-demonstrators attempted to throw Molotov cocktails and teargas at the participants.
One attacker who was caught on camera with a lit Molotov cocktail was arrested and charged with a hate crime under the new criminal code introduced in 2006. A participant who stepped out of the protected area to make a phone call was attacked, with blows to the head and kidneys. After the march finished they were reports of at least six attacks by organised gangs on 30 to 40 march participants, 12 people were injured and two were hospitalised.
In the days that followed, One Pride organiser, Franko Dato, received three text messages with death threats and on 10 July he was recognised and attacked by several people. Another Pride organiser, Viktor Zahtila, was recognised and attacked on Wednesday night.
A total of 13 people were arrested, including five suspected of planning to throw Molotov cocktails.
Estonia
2004
14 August Gay Pride march in Tallinn
The first ever Gay Pride march in Estonia passes off without incident
2005
13 August Gay Pride march in Tallinn
(400 people attend despite downpour)
No incidents to report
2006
12 August LGBT March in Tallinn
More than a dozen counter-demonstrators, reportedly calling themselves Estonian nationalists, physically and verbally attacked marchers, spat on them as well as throwing stones and eggs at them. Over 10 people were injured. One was hospitlaised with head injuries. The police did not intervene. Later in the evening, a window of an entertainment venue hosting Pride participants was smashed. Following the march, six counter-demonstrators were arrested fro “violating public order”
2007
11 August 2007 LGBT March in Tallinn
March goes ahead without incident. However, Police and City authorities make it awkward for the organisers. Pride organiser Lisette Kampus says that the planning process had been “remarkably un-smooth. I really want to believe that this hassle has been put on the organisers of other public events too, and it is not a question of tolerance or attitude towards Pride events.”
Hungary
Pride events have been held in Budapest since 1997 – largely without incident.
2007
7 July LGBT march from Heroes’ Square to Freedom Bridge in Budapest
(2,000 people attended)
A counter demonstration was organised by the far right Jobbik Party. Counter-demonstrators reportedly threw eggs, bottles and Molotov cocktails at the marchers, and threatened their security and physical integrity. Several marchers were injured. Police were present, but allegedly failed to protect participants from attack. The after-party at the Buddha Beach Club was also attacked by counter-demonstrators – 11 individuals were beaten up. Witnesses allege that police failed to respond to emergency calls.
Latvia (information from ILGA and Latvian Gay rights group Mozaika
2005
23 July Riga Pride
(300 people attended)
Permission for the march was withdrawn on 20 July by the executive director of the Riga City Council, Eriks Skapars, for “security reasons”. His spokesman, Ugis Vidauskis, said: “Mr Skapars believes that this event, which is meant to increase tolerance against sexual minorities, would actually result in decreasing that tolerance. This is not tied to one organisation protesting. We concluded that the majority of society was against it, and it could result in unrest.”
The Riga administrative court overturned the ban on 22 July.
A service is held by the representatives of all the main Christian dominations in the Cathedral to condemn the march, and to pray for “traditional family values”.
A counter-demonstration of more than 1,000 people tried to block the Pride marchers and threw tear gas and eggs at them. There is aggressive homophobic chanting and grossly offensive homophobic posters. The march route is altered. In total six of the protestors are arrested, including two have Nazi symbols on their clothing.
2006
22 July Riga Pride
(banned)
On Wednesday 19 July, Riga City Council banned the “Riga Pride 2006” march because of alleged threats of violence against march participants. Latvia’s President, Vaira Vike Freiberga, and Prime Minister, Aigars Kalvitis, both denounce the City Council’s decision.
On 22 July a church service and a press conference were held instead in support of Riga Pride. The Church service was attacked by a large number of people threw, among other things, eggs and excrement at them.
A member of the European Parliament and members of national parliaments from around Europe had a similar experience when they tried to leave the press conference at the Reval Hotel Latvija. Police refuse to respond to their requests for protection, Eventually the Acting Prime Minister, Aigars Stokenbergs, comes in person to the hotel and arranges for the organisers to be evacuated safely.
Six of those who had thrown objects were found guilty of “petty hooliganism”.
On 12 April 2007, a Regional Administrative Court ruled that the decision of the Riga City Council to ban the Pride march in 2006 was illegal. The Court said that the authorities had not explored the possibilities of alternative routes and increased protection sufficiently before banning the event.
Amnesty International’s Latvia researcher, Anders Dahlbeck, said: “Why after the Riga Pride 2006 march had been cancelled due to perceived ‘security threats’ to the LGBT community, was so little protection afforded during the events organised by the community on Saturday 22 July?”
2007
3 June Riga Pride
(700 people attended, including 250 foreigners and 100 AI activists from 11 countries on march)
The march took place in Vermanes Park (the same venue that had been set for 2006)
The police surrounded the event and kept the large number of counter-demonstrators at bay.
However, a number of objects were thrown including two smoke bombs (one of which landed at the feet of the chief of police). The man and his 14-year-old son accused of throwing the bombs will have their case heard on 9 June 2008. Police praised for their protection.
Elsewhere several thousand people take part in a large anti-gay concert, called “The World Against Homosexuality.”
2008
31 May Riga Pride
New legislation means that to protest you just need to get permission from the local venue (and not from the authorities as before). This effectively means that’s it now a first-come first-serve basis on booking demonstrations.
However, when it came to booking Vermanes Park for 31 May the Pride organisers were faced with numerous delays. Eventually they received a hand-written fax saying that because of the Latvian Song Festival “all the parks in the city centre will be occupied for the whole summer”. The Festival is in mid-July and the park has given the go ahead for a “Family Festival” organised by Church and Riga City Council the week before. (The Family Festival is being viewed as a direct riposte to Pride). The park authority suggested an alternative march in the suburbs. The Pride organisers have since pointed out the hypocrisy and after further investigations were told that the Administrative Director of Riga City Council had said that “they [the Pride organisers] should not be allowed to get the parks in the centre”. The Pride organisers have now notified the Riga City Council that they plan to organise the march in Vermanes Park on 31 May and are waiting for a reply.
Lithuania
On 30 September 2005, demonstrators meet in the Europe Square in Vilnius to protest against the possibility of a gay pride march and the spread of homosexuality in Lithuania.
2007
25 May Vilnius Tolerance Campaign Rally / Council of Europe’s “All Different – All Equal” bus tour
(banned)
Vilnius City Council voted unanimously to ban the rally in support of the rights of various groups, including the rights of LGBT people, citing “security reasons”. The event had been organised by the Lithuanian Gay League as part of the International Day against Homophobia, and would have been part of the EU bus tour.
Moldova (from KPH)
On 16 May 2005, the interim City mayor of Chisinau, Mr Vasile Ursu, rejects an application by LGBT organisation GenderDoc-M to hold a peaceful demonstration outside the parliament in support of anti-discrimination legislation.
A decision the Appeals Court rules against, the Supreme Court then sends back with new evidence, the Appeals Court then reverses its earlier decision, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court.
On 28 April 2006, Vasile Ursu rejects an application from GenderDoc-M to hold a demonstration as part of the fifth annual Moldovan Pride Festival on 5-7 May. The demonstration would have again supported the progress of anti-discrimination legislation through parliament. Ban is upheld by Appeals Court, but overturned by the Supreme Court in December (the ruling cites the European Convention for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms).
2007
26-27 April LGBT Festival / Council of Europe’s “All Different – All Equal” bus tour
(partially banned)
The event connected with the bus tour was banned by the Chisinau City Council on 11 April. The Council argued that the event would cause possible public disorder, and was against Moldovan Christian values. The decision comes despite the ruling of the Moldovan Supreme Court in December 2006 that a previous ban on an LGBT Pride march was illegal.
Other elements of Moldovan Pride were given the go ahead.
The first event, which was the laying of flowers at the monument of the victims of repression, was halted by the police. The police claimed that the participants needed the official permission of the City Hall to do so – a point later denied by a representative of the City Hall.
Poland
1998
Three masked people stood in Castle Square to call for LGBT rights
2001
1 May Warsaw Equality March
(300 people attended)
Organised at very short notice, only one rainbow flag present.
2002
Warsaw Equality March
(1000 people attended)
No incidents reported
2003
Warsaw Equality March
(4000 people attended)
No incidents reported
2004
May Krakow’s “Culture for Tolerance” Festival
March runs into a blockade set up by the All Polish Youth (youth group of League of Polish Families) and is pelted by eggs, stones and bottles. Marchers are pursued into the old town square, where a riot ensues. Police use rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. A number of people are injured, 20 are arrested, and one policeman is attacked with acid.
13 June Warsaw Equality March
(banned; 2000 people attend alternative march)
The mayor of Warsaw, Lech Kaczynski, bans it citing timing, the route and the possibility of violence as reasons as well as to protect the morality and religious convictions of the inhabitants. An alternative march is organised by Senator Maria Szyszkowska and passes off without incident.
November Poznan Equality March
Blocked when Polish Youth throw stones at the marchers.
2005
April Krakow Equality March
(Cancelled out of the respect for the feelings of Catholics in the wake of the death of Pope John Paul II)
Warsaw Equality March
(banned, but 2,500 people march anyway)
The then Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski banned the march. A counter demonstration of 300 is organised by All Polish Youth. It leads to skirmishes with marchers and there were a number of arrests. About 10 people are arrested and three are injured, including a policeman.
Hundreds of police officers were on hand to keep order, but did not try to stop the march.
Polish gay and lesbian organizations filed a lawsuit against Kaczynski, who went onto become Poland's President, after he banned the 2005 parade. This was the first case of a banned Pride march being challenged in the court. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Kaczynski acted illegally and discriminatory in banning the march in the Polish capital. In its ruling the European Court cited three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights that Kaczynski had violated - the right to freedom of association and assembly, the right to live free of discrimination and the right to an effective remedy.
A week after the Equality March, hundreds of people take part in the “Normality Parade”, demanding tough new laws against homosexuality.
19 November Poznan Equality March
(banned; but still goes ahead)
Counter demonstration from All Polish Youth. They shout “let’s gas the fags”, “We’ll do to you what Hitler did to the Jews” and throw eggs and horse excrement. Riot police surround the march, 68 people are arrested.
2006
29 April Krakow’s March of Tolerance
(2000 participants)
Event passes off successfully with support of local police and the Mayor of Krakow.
An attack by 200 members of All Polish Youth throwing stones and eggs was contained by effective police action. Two marchers were slightly injured.
10 June Warsaw Equality March
(3000 participants, 2000 police)
Goes ahead for the first time in three years without a ban. A counter-demonstration from 100 people is contained by the police.
16 November Poznan Equality March
(450 people attended to celebrate International Day of Tolerance)
There were about 150 counter-demonstrators who chanted anti-LGBT slogans.
The march was guarded by around 500 policemen with shields, helmets and dogs.
2007
21 April Krakow Tolerance march
Very little conflict, despite number of All Polish Youth matching the number of marchers
19 May Warsaw Equality Parade
(5000 participants)
The largest LGBT parade ever in Poland. All Polish Youth organises a small counter demonstration, but a massive police presence prevents any violence.
Romania
2005
Burcharest GayFest
(500 participants)
March is originally banned by Mayor of Burcharest, Adrieau Videanu. President Basescu intervenes and persuades mayor to reverse decision. Onlookers shout “homosexuality is a sin”, and “get out of Romania” at marchers. Riot police detain 10 members of the far right organisation “New Right” who tried to break through the police ranks and surge towards the marchers, waving banners reading “against homosexuality, for normality”.
2006
3 June Burcharest GayFest
A right-wing Christian group, New Right, files a legal complaint to ban Bucharest’s GayFest, calling it “obscene and anti-social”. Hundreds of activists march through downtown Burcharest. More than a thousand protestors throw eggs, stones and plastic bottles. Around 60 people try to break through police lines to attack the marchers. The counter-demonstrators then turn their fury at the police and around 50 people are detained. After the march ends and police protection is over, six participants are attacked and beaten.
2007
9 June Bucharest March for Diversity
(400 people attended, 800 police)
Romanian riot police detained dozens of counter-demonstrators as hundreds of them tried to violently break up the march. Police fired tear gas to hold the counter-demonstrators at bay after some threw stones and attempted to break through police protective cordons staffed.
Earlier in the day a counter-march, March for Normality, organised by Romania’s New Right group attacked some 300 participants, including a number of priests. They clashed with a group of LGBT activists carrying “All Different – All Equal” posters. Some 100 neo-Nazis were arrested. Spokespersons for ACCEPT, the organisers of the March for Diversity, praised the professionalism of the police.
Russia
2006
27 May Moscow Gay Pride March
(vetoed, two successive rallies went ahead anyway with 30-40 Pride activists, 1000 policeman and 200-300 counter-demonstrators)
Moscow’s city council vetoed Russia’s first ever Gay Pride march. The local politicians’ decision was supported by local religious leaders. The decision was taken in the “interests of public order”.
The unauthorised rallies ended with clashes and around 50 people were arrested. At both sites, hundreds of anti-gay protestors, including skinheads, nationalists and Orthodox followers, attack the participants, beating and kicking many, while throwing objects and chanting, “Russia free of faggots! Death to sodomites!” A man punches Volker Beck, a gay member of the German parliament, and strikes him with a rock, injuring his eye. Police briefly detain Beck. The authorities cleared the assailant of being motivated by hate against a particular group (a crime which is banned by the Russian Criminal Code). Also among those injured are two ILGA board members.
Pride organisers appeal against the ban to the Moscow City Court (19 September, lose), to the head of Moscow City Court (April 2007, lose), to Russia’s Supreme Court (22 June 2007, lose)
2007
17 May St Petersburg Gay Pride
City’s law and order spokesman confirms that the parade will not be permitted as it clashes with other events.
27 May
Moscow Pride
(march banned)
On 26 May, Nationalists organise two large protests against Moscow Pride. At one Russian National Socialist leader Dmitry Rumiantsev tells the crowd: “I hear tomorrow there will be some sort of parade. Happy hunting, wolves!”
On 27 May, a petition signed by 49 European parliamentarians asking the mayor to allow gay rights’ demonstration is handed in. The delegation handing in the petition is attacked by a group of homophobic nationalists. British gay activist Peter Tatchell is hit in the eye. Alexey Kiseliev, co-organiser of Moscow Pride, is knocked to the ground and kicked.
Three Pride organisers, Nikolay Alexeyev, Nikolay Kramov and Sergey Konstantinov are among 30 Russians arrested. Kramov and Alexeyev are held overnight and charged with disobeying orders of the police, as well as with walking on the street (as opposed to the pavement). They are later convicted and fined 1000 roubles.
Serbia
2001
30 June Belgrade Pride Celebration
Just as first Gay Pride Celebration is about to start in Republic Square, a crowd of around 1000 counter-demonstrators appears. The counter-demonstrators, include members of the Parent’s Forum, the Obraz movement and representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The participants, some onlookers and the police are attacked with fists, bottles, eggs, stones and clubs. Only when a group of around 100 men run towards the march near the army centre building do the police attempt to block them by firing into the air. A meeting and press conference planned for after the march is cancelled after the building where it was due to take place comes under attack and several gay men and lesbians attempting to reach the meeting are assaulted and threatened. A total of 40 civilians and eight police offers are injured. None of the alleged organisers of the attacks, who had posted threats about the march on their website, were brought to justice.
No Pride event has been held in Serbia since 2001.
2007
Council of Europe’s “All Different – All Equal” bus tour
Gay rights groups organise an event called “Caravan of Differences” at the Exit music festival in Novi Sad as part of the Council of Europe’s “All Different – All Equal” campaign. Neo-Nazis publish the names and addresses of the organisers and a few days after that six of the organisers were attacked and beaten up in a park in Belgrade.
