Latvian capital bans gay parade
CNN news item on ban of Riga Pride March
RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- City authorities in the Latvian capital on Wednesday denied a request by several gay rights organizations to hold a parade here this weekend, saying they could not guarantee marchers' safety.
"The city council met and decided not to allow the gay pride parade to take place because of security concerns," said Sandra Grinberga, a city council spokeswoman.
Parade organizers lamented the decision and said they would file an appeal with the Riga administrative court later Wednesday. The court overturned a similar ban last year and allowed the city's first ever gay pride parade to take place.
"We think this is a huge blow for democracy in Latvia. The city council is caving in to extremists and this sets a very bad precedent," said Katrina Schwartz, a spokeswoman for one of the parade organizers, Mozaika.
Schwartz said the decision calls into question Riga's ability to host a NATO summit later this year, where alliance leaders, including U.S. President George W. Bush, are expected to attend.
"If the city council is being sincere and stating that they literally cannot guarantee security for this event, then I think that absolutely the Latvian government and NATO have to be reconsidering the country's preparedness to host the NATO summit," Schwartz said.
Anti-gay demonstrators have gathered every day this week outside the city hall building to lobby against the parade taking place.
Latvian Interior Minister Dzintars Jaundzeikars urged the city council not to allow the parade, saying police could not guarantee the marchers' safety. Many of the leaders of Latvia's churches have also condemned the planned march, saying it promotes homosexuality and an immoral lifestyle.
The organizers were expecting about 500 marchers this year, including several dignitaries from Sweden and Denmark.
At last year's parade, thousands of people lined the streets in Riga's Old Town center to watch about 30 people march a few blocks to attend a church service. Many onlookers shouted insults and carried anti-gay signs, and some hurled debris at the marchers.
Latvia's gay and lesbian community has struggled to find a political voice after having been forced underground during nearly five decades of Soviet occupation, which ended in 1991.
The country's Parliament took the first step last September toward approving a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage when it sent the proposed ban to a committee for review.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/19/latvia.parade.ap/index.html
