Tens of thousands turn out for Gay Pride in European cities
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tens of thousands turn out for Gay Pride in European cities*
AFP - Sunday, June 8
ROME (AFP) - - Tens of thousands took to the streets of Athens, Rome and
Warsaw for Gay Pride parades Saturday, drawing attention to the fact
that many homosexuals in Europe still do not enjoy the same rights as
heterosexuals.
"We have even more reasons to be here today than in previous years,"
Vladimir Luxuria -- an Italian transvestite and former left-wing deputy
-- said in Rome, where tens of thousands took part in the parade.
Rome's parade sparked particular contraversy this year as new mayor
Gianni Alemanno in May denounced the event as "an act of sexual
exhibition" and vowed to make sure the demonstration would not offend
anybody.
At the national level, the political climate does not look any more
promising for gay rights in Italy as new Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi's conservative coalition shares close ties with the Vatican.
"With the right in power, Gay Pride is becoming a demonstration for
freedom and against authoritarianism," said Franco Grillini, also an
ex-deputy from the left and founder of the homosexual rights group Arcigay.
In Warsaw, some 2,000 people paraded through the streets, as an opinion
poll showed that deeply Catholic Poland is largely hostile to homosexuality.
Police were out in force to prevent feared attacks by extreme-right
groups as a procession of floats passed through the capital's main
avenues to the sound of dance music.
A poll by the CBOS institute published Saturday confirmed that
homosexuals are generally viewed in Poland as being perverted, sick or
at best sinners. Of the 1,116 adults questioned, 69 percent believed
gays should keep silent about their sexuality.
Poland was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights after a ban
on a gay pride march in Warsaw in 2005 by the then mayor, Lech
Kaczynski, now the country's president.
Kaczynski, a conservative Catholic, had likewise forbidden the parade in
2004, but the 2006 and 2007 events went ahead, despite repeated calls
for a ban from conservatives and far-right Catholic groups.
In Athens however, the mood was more uplifting as some 2,000 gays and
lesbians took to the streets only four days after the country's first
same-sex marriages.
One of the newlyweds, 47-year-old Evangelia Vlami, head of the Greek
Union of Homosexuals and Lesbians (Olke), rode at the head of the parade
that drew twice as many participants this year as in previous years.
Demonstrators wore banners with "Say yes to me", "Yes to political
marriage".
On Tuesday, the socialist mayor of the small island of Tilos in the
southeast Aegean Sea took advantage of a legal loophole and married two
couples, one of women and one of men.
A judge in Rhodes, on which Tilos depends, immediately asked the mayor
to annul the marriages and launched a preliminary investigation into a
possible case against the elected official for breach of office.