First Europride in Eastern Europe

Europride, which has roamed from country to country since 1992, was staged
in Eastern Europe for the first time this year, culminating with the July
17 parade through the streets of Warsaw.

Around 8,000 people took part in the march despite temperatures near 40 C
(above 100 F). Some previous Europrides in Western Europe have attracted
up to 1 million celebrants.

The Warsaw parade’s main demand was that Poland pass a civil-partnership
law for same-sex couples.

Around 2,000 police officers protected the marchers from more than 200
anti-gay protesters, who threw bottles of water, rocks, eggs and Bibles at
the parade, participants said. At least eight counterdemonstrators were
arrested for throwing things, damaging flags or, in at least one case,
assaulting a cop.

“The protesters were numerous and incredibly violent,” said American gay
activist and “Milk” screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, in an e-mail to
California gay leader Rick Jacobs. “The worst was when a mob threw two
large, homemade percussion-style bombs over the police line and onto our
float. When the second exploded, pieces of it struck both (my boyfriend)
Frank and I and left me deaf in one ear for about an hour.”

Black said police charged into the group from which the explosives emerged
and restrained and beat the counterprotesters.

Other participants praised the event’s policing, said they did not feel
threatened, and hailed the parade’s arrival behind the former Iron
Curtain.

“It’s incredibly positive that this pan-European event is now taking place
in a former Communist country,” said Ulrike Lunacek, co-president of the
European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights. “Not only does it
constitute a very important signal for Eastern Europe that mentalities do
slowly change, but it also shows how membership of the European Union can
facilitate this change.”

Moscow Pride founder Nikolai Alekseev said: “The police did an incredible
job. … We felt very safe at all times, even when we left the parade at
the end.”

Other events included ILGA-Europe’s “LGBT Family Exhibition – Different
Families, Same Love” at the National Library from July 8 to 18 and an LGBT
film festival, “Celluloid Ars Homo Erotica.”

The EP Intergroup said that although Poland joined the EU in 2004, it
“still fails to provide LGBT people with adequate legal protection or
address omnipresent homophobia.”

“Polish authorities also refuse to recognize same-sex unions registered
abroad, and prevent their citizens from entering a same-sex union abroad,”
the group said. “Polish authorities have illegally banned LGBT human
rights campaigners from marching publicly.”

The late Polish President Lech Kaczynski, as then-mayor of Warsaw, banned
gay pride in 2005, leading to a 2007 ruling against the nation by the
European Court of Human Rights.

Next year’s Europride will be in Rome.

By Rex Wockner