LITHUANIA: Protesters attack country's first Gay Pride march

Record ID: 278398

  • Title: LITHUANIA: Protesters attack country's first Gay Pride march
  • Date: 9th May 2010
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Lithuanian) "BALTIC PRIDE 2010" MARCHER ARNOLDAS ZDANEVICIUS SAYING: "My main aim in participating in this march is to show that we are, that we will be, we want to be visible, not invisible, we are citizens of Lithuania and we want to live here ant not hide ourselves." (SOUNDBITE) (Lithuanian) PASSERBY ANTANAS VINGELIS SAYING: "I am against this march and ag
  • Embargoed: 24th May 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lithuania, Lithuania
  • Country: Lithuania
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5241UIVGU8UAQRLTCCKLXWFTW
  • Story Text: Protesters attack Lithuania's first Gay Pride march.
    .About 500 people marched in Lithuania's capital Vilnius on Saturday (May 8) in the Baltic state's first gay pride march, as hundreds of police kept about 1,000 anti-gay protesters at bay, at one point firing tear gas to keep them back.
    "We want to show all Lithuania that behind me is a very peaceful demonstration and the time has come for the rainbow flag to shine over Vilnius," the chairman of the Lithuanian Gay League Vladimir Simonko told Reuters before the march.
    "I would like to show that homosexuals and transsexuals exist in Lithuania and they want equal rights," a marcher added.
    Many people watching the march were against it.
    "I am against this march and against such people who express their opinion in this form because they do not care that my kids can be here. It is humiliating," said Antanas Vingelis.
    The main march took place without incident, but riot police used tear gas later when anti-gay protesters tried to break through barriers to where participants were still gathered.
    Some 600 police, including riot police with dogs and mounted police, ringed the event, which was held along the banks of a river, just on the edge of the town centre.
    Recent opinion polls have shown that more than two-thirds of Lithuanians are opposed to the gay pride event in the ex-Soviet republic of 3.4 million people, where the Roman Catholic church, which regards homosexuality
    as a grave sin, has a dominant role.
    Police said 19 anti-gay protesters were detained after trying to break through barriers and for throwing gas grenades.
    The parade, the second in the Baltic states, included gay activists from Latvia and Estonia and other EU countries, as well as a delegation from Amnesty International.
    A Lithuanian court initially banned the parade last week, but that was overturned on appeal and the march went ahead.
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