■ The Rainbow Flag flies defiantly on the building housing the Mozaīka office in Riga.  photo: UK Gay News

RIGA, May 29, 2008  —  Latvian ‘nationalist’ organisations warned today that the Gay Pride event along the 11th November Shoreline in Riga on Saturday will result in probable counter action.  And the country’s gay and lesbian NGO, Mozaika, was proudly flying the Rainbow Flag from its office building downtown.

Gay Pride march will “create not just peaceful protests within the framework of the law,” the Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze newspaper reported today.

The Daugavas Vanagi organisation, the Vilki association, the “Everything for Latvia” political party, the “Patriotic Rearing and Military Close Combat School” and the Club 415 organisation of Latvian nationalists say that the decisive battle over Latvian independence was fought on the banks of the Daugava River – the place now known as 11th November Shoreline.

In its joint announcement, the organisations say that specific values are at the foundation of the state.

“The establishment and short-term existence of the Latvian state, they say, was related to self-denial, sacrifice and victims.  Among the main symbols of these battles were the Freedom Battles and Lāčplēsis Day, November 11,” the statement says.

“In this context, it is completely unacceptable to us as nationalist Latvians that on May 31 of this year, one of the central symbols of Latvian statehood and national self-understanding – the 11th November Shoreline – will be used by minorities of sexual inclinations to propagandise their absolutely unhealthy views and amoral way of life.”

The groups suggest that the Rīga City Council take into account Section 116 of the Latvian Constitution, which allows limitations on human rights so as to protect security, order and morality, and either reject the event or choose a different location that would be more appropriate for the nature of the event.

This, say the organisations, would be a forest on the edge of the city, an abandoned industrial zone, or Victory Park, which is where each year, on May 9, Soviet army veterans and their supporters – those who committed to the most massive sexual crimes of rape in modern history – gather together.

The flying of the Rainbow Flag is very unusual in Latvia.  While the Golden Bar and the Boys’ Best bars have small flags discretely displayed at their entrances, Mozaīka “came out” at lunchtime.

The flag even attracted local television crews this afternoon.

In Bucharest, Rev. Elder Diane Fisher, the Metropolitan Community Churches Bishop for Eastern Europe, said yesterday that she was “dismayed” at the letter Cardinal Jānis Pujāts and priests from Roman Catholic in Latvia had written to the government.

“It was with great dismay that I read your letter condemning the government of Latvia, a member state of the European Union, for authorizing the Pride March in Riga on May 31, 2008,” she wrote in a letter to the Cardinal.

“Freedom of Assembly is a fundamental human right equally offered to all citizens of a country.  As illustrated by your letter, it becomes more critical that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community have the freedom to march, to increase public awareness and understanding of this marginalized and often abused community.

‘In your letter, you state that the march is against morality and the family model.

“It is not immoral to love, but hatred is immoral,” Rev. Fisher wrote. “Jesus said nothing about condemnation of homosexuals, but he did have a lot to say about love: “love your neighbor, as you love yourself’.

“Jesus never called on us to be judge and jury, but instead advocated “judge not, lest ye be judged”.

“It is my fervent wish that the government of Latvia holds firm to their decision to value the rights of all people and allows the march to proceed.

“I remind Cardinal Jānis Pujāts and priests from Roman Catholic congregations in Latvia to remember that Jesus too stood on the margins of society.  Where would Jesus stand today?  Would Jesus discriminate?

“I pray for peace and harmony for the people of Latvia and understand that tolerance for difference is the only way to make this possible,” she concluded.