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Anger over Riga gay pride march
Riga has come under fire from the European, Danish and Swedish parliaments over the handling of this year's Riga Pride event was handled. The Latvian capital faced a 300-strong gay rights demonstration as more than 400 counter-protestors were kept back by police.
An alliance of international participants in Riga Pride wrote to the city's authorities earlier this week. They claimed the way police arranged the security measures and acted at the entrance point meant that participants were isolated from the general public."
The group claims that police stopped people wanting to join the march to ask them their sexual orientation. They claimed police only allowed lesbian and gay people to take part. And they complained that the illegal counter-demonstration intimidated the Riga Pride participants.
Although Riga Pride went ahead without any violence, some church leaders and politicians in Latvia expressed homophobic views in the run up to the event. Cardinal Janis Pujats said homosexuality was against the natural order and, therefore, against the laws of God, and that homosexuals also claim unlawfully to have the rights of a minority.
A group of six opposition MPs claimed earlier called the event "a bomb explosion with poisonous gases which people will breathe long after the event itself. "
This article was written for TravelSavvy Europe by Rad Djork. For more information see: Riga - Offbeat sights. If you know of an interesting European travel related news story, please get in contact.
