Q-Seattle Events: Tacky Tourist Clubs

During his two recent visits to the Baltic republic of Latvia, Redmond's anti-gay activist pastor Ken Hutcherson called himself a "special envoy" from the White House Office of Faith Based Initiatives. The Stranger's Eli Sanders checked with the White House about the title. A spokesperson for the office told him that Hutcherson had no official sanction for his trip. Disputation ensues.

The White House has reason to be concerned about the title that the pastor has been using because Hutcherson's activities in Latvia have embroiled him in a confusing, dangerous, and potentially violent local and regional political firestorm in the Baltic republic.

We've been a bit mystified by this bizarre connection between that small republic on the Baltic and the local pastor. As we've mentioned before, a great Seattle Times story from January by reporter Janice I. Tu about Hutcherson's outreach to local Slavic emigrant churches seems to partly explain the local angle on his connections with Latvia. The Times' David Postman today points to the same article to explain the connection in his summary of the official-title flap.

The picture accompanying the January story shows Hutcherson with a group that includes Alexey Ledyaev, the pastor of New Generation Church in Riga which sponsored Hutcherson's November trip to Latvia. Unfortunately, the story doesn't explain how the connection between the two pastors was first made.

But, in keeping with the "WebWrangler" handle we use here, we wrangled through the web a bit and found a bit more to explain things.

Latvia's dangerous gay-rights/no-rights brew

Since at least 2005 when a group of activists staged a gay pride march in Riga, gay rights has become a hot-button issue in Latvia.

Although it was opposed by Latvia's prime minister, Aigars Kalvitis, activists staged a gay pride march in Riga in July 2005. Before the march, the Prime Minister said that Riga should "not promote things like that".

"For sexual minorities to parade in the very heart of Riga, next to the Doma church, is unacceptable," he told the country's television station before the march.

Despite the PM's misgivings, a few dozen people marched, according to the BBC.

[The] marchers were outnumbered by hundreds of protesters who blocked the narrow streets of the capital.

Police were forced to alter the march route and to form a chain around the parade participants to protect them.

The march had sparked outrage in Latvia and only went ahead after a court overturned a council ban on the event.

Officials said that six of the protesters had been detained for their part in disrupting the march.

Although march organizers had initially been given a permit in 2005 by Riga's city council, the council withdrew the permits "after receiving letters and e-mails from religious and extremist groups threatening to disrupt it." A court order restored the permits just prior to the march.

In 2006 a public march permit for gay pride activists was again denied because of threats of violence -- a denial that was upheld by the courts. Activists in Riga settled for a church service and hotel rally, but the events were once again greeted with violent anti-gay protesters.

This report on the 2006 events should be treated with some scepticism since it comes from a Russian source who is apparently quoting a London activist, Peter Tatchell, who tends to lace his statements with hyperbole. (Tatchell often comes across like a Larry Kramer with 'roid rage.)

Tatchell offers this first-hand account in a web commentary printed by The Guardian:

After the banning of the march, the Latvian gay rights movement, Mozaika, switched to holding an indoor rally in the prestigious Reval hotel, in the heart of downtown Riga. By opting for an indoor, private rally, Mozaika had hoped to cool the inflammatory atmosphere. But the homophobes were not satisfied.

The Reval was under siege all day on July 22 by about 250 protesters from the anti-gay No Pride movement - a menacing alliance of Christian fundamentalists, ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazis who represent a worrying revival of pro-fascist sympathies among sections of the Latvian population.

White T-shirted No Pride thugs roamed the streets outside the hotel searching for gays and lesbians to attack. Anyone who looked the tiniest bit unstraight was liable to abuse and assault, even innocent passing tourists. For much of the afternoon and evening, the police seemed to stand back and let the No Priders terrorise people with virtual impunity.

This is the dangerous brew into which Hutcherson inserts himself with his now-dicredited claim to be a White House Envoy.

Hutcherson inserts himself into the controversy

Riga has a new mayor this year. He expressed guarded support for a gay rights march in the capitol in July.

In an interview with Diena newspaper, Janis Birks said he was ashamed at events last year, when bags of human excrement were thrown at gay marchers.

The Mayor called for tolerance and understanding on all sides.

Last month London Pride announced they would be "twinning" with Riga Pride as a sign of solidarity.

"The problem is not in the march but sexual orientation," said Mr Birks.

"We need to have discussion within society. What happened on the side of sexual minorities and the other side, I think we need understanding from both sides."

Mr Birks said that if security could be provided, the march could go ahead.

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, welcomed his Latvian counterpart's comments, but urged Riga authorities to do more to protect gay people on the march.

"Security is something that is under the control of the authorities," said Mr Livingstone.

"It is their duty to ensure that demonstrators are able to exercise their right to peaceful protest.

"I urge Mr Birks to complete the stand he has taken and ensure a peaceful Gay Pride demonstration takes place in an appropriate central venue in the city."

Hutcherson's friends -- the anti-gay activists who welcomed the so-called "White House Envoy" to Riga -- reacted angrily to the statement issued by London's mayor. In a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the anti-gay group "No Pride" called it "unacceptable that civil servants of the United Kingdom interfere with the Latvia's internal affairs."

The anti-gay group called on Livingstone and LGBT people "to respect the views of Latvian society and their right to self-determination and sovereignty."

No such call was made in November, 2006 when Hutcherson addressed a church gathering in Riga and criticized the country's president.

This report on Hutcherson's sermon comes from an awkwardly translated report posted on the web page of New Generation, the Pentacostal church that hosted the Redmond preacher:

"My duty in this country is to defend righteousness!" Hutcherson said, "When I heard about the drawings in Diena newspaper and the publications insulting New Generation Church, I realized I must come to Latvia and engage myself in this battle for righteousness.

"Scott and I wrote letters to the leaders of your government, state ministers and statesmen. I can read you the response from Vaira Vike-Freiberga."

Kenneth Hutcherson [quoted] the Latvian President's letter which [stated] that [the] constitution of a democratic state provides for the freedom of speech and allows Diena to express its opinions whether Christians like it or not.

She pointed out that the conflict was initiated mostly by the New Generation Church itself which is intolerant toward sexual diversity. ...

"I came to you representing the White House," continued Hutcherson. "In my country, people will know how Latvia responded to antichristian statements. We need to stand for righteousness not only morally, but also physically and financially. It's a great battle for righteousness and no one can stop it. I promise to stand with you."

Apparently they think it's OK for someone who claims to be "representing the White House" to "interfere with the Latvia's internal affairs."

Next post: History is politics in Latvia

Labels: gay pride, ken hutcherson, latvia, religion