Ok, so why don't you go to Gay Pride anymore? Maybe you think Gay Pride has become too commercial, or that it reinforces queer stereotypes, or maybe so many of us don't go anymore because we have become a little too complacent and don't feel the need to celebrate our pride anymore. I myself nearly didn't go to any pride events this year until I remembered that for many people around the world having any sort of public gay event is just a dream or just something they only just became possible.
This year I showed up at pride events and celebrated in solidarity with my queer brothers and sisters around the world in places like Taiwan (first Pride in 2003) or Hong Kong (first gay event 2005) and in to those planning the upcoming
World Pride in Jerusalem. And of course I was very excited to find out that Riga, Latvia, the birthplace of my great-grandparents, was set to have their first ever gay pride event after a ban on the event was overturned in court.
Unfortunately the event was disrupted when thousands of violent protesters began throwing eggs at gay pride participants and then began blocking streets. Homophobic remarks by Prime Minsister Aigars Kalvaitis maybe have helped to spark the violent and aggressive protests. Kalvaitis came out against the event according to the
BBC saying Riga, "should not promote things like that," and "For sexual minorities to parade in the very heart of Riga, next to the Doma church, is unacceptable," on Latvian National Television.
As president of a country that has officially joined the European Community and has been struggling to be accepted as a legitimate and respected independent nation, perhaps Kalvaitis should try harder to follow in the footsteps of the majority of European Community nations that not only don't harass queers but actually provide equal rights to queers. It's unfortunate to Latvian citizens that Kalvaitis appears to be governing in the shadows of the Russian Federation rather than the European Union. Maybe the citiziens of Latvia will wake up and embrace human diversity like their turly European neighbors and then maybe I can be proud that my family is from Riga.
