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With a huge police presence protecting them from counter-demonstrators, LGBTQ folk and their supporters celebrated Gay Pride in Riga, Latvia with a march through a city park.

UK Gay News reports

Around 1,200 people marched around the Vermanes Gardens at lunchtime as Riga staged, after two previous attempts, its Gay Pride.

But it was not like most Prides around the world. Today was more of a walk around the park with tight security. The main thing, as everyone agreed, was that it happened and it was peaceful.

As often happens with these things, the reported numbers of participants varies widely. AP counts a significantly lower number:

The gay rights activists, numbering about 400, paraded around a fenced-in park in downtown Riga on a sunny day, while a crowd of some 100 protesters shouted homophobic taunts from surrounding streets.

But whatever the number, the peaceful nature of the demonstration was a first for Eastern Europe. A participant from Belarus told UK Gay News

"While I had the feeling that we were in a zoo, it was better than nothing," he said. "I hope that today will have a lot of media coverage in Latvia to show people that such an event can be staged peacefully.

"The police were fantastic and everyone worked so hard to make the event go without problems.

Unlike previous years when they were accused of standing and watching violence, Riga police were out in force this year to keep anti-gay demonstrators away from Pride celebrants. UK Gay News photo

"Most of the people watching the parade through the railings were supportive," he felt. "Many were waiving at us."

Officials from several fellow European Union countries travelled to Latvia to take part in the celebration.

Volker Beck, the member of the German Bundestag who was in Moscow last weekend for the city's troubled Gay Pride, declared to participants that "this is the first real gay parade in Riga."

"A wonderful day -- the fist legal Pride n Riga," he told an enthusiastic audience. "May there be many more." [#]

Despite earlier rumors that American homophobes like local preacher/activist Ken Hutcherson and his Oregon brother-in-bigotry Scott Lively might have attended, it's not clear yet whether either of them were in the groups that were kept far from the Pride celebrants.

Update: User 'lettlander' offers this great YouTube video with views from both sides of the fence.

Labels: gay pride, ken hutcherson, latvia