Equality Parade : no harm done

Warszaw – Over two thousand people marched in Warszaw’s first legal Equality Parade last Saturday, among them politicians from Sweden, France, the Netherlands and prominent German Greens like Claudia Roth. Groups of skinheads threw eggs at the marchers, but thanks to heavy police protection no harm was done.The Gay Rights organisation that had organised the march, said that since the rightist League of Polish Families entered government last month, the climate for gays, lesbians and bisexuals has worsened. In 2004 and 2005, marches have been forbidden by Warszaw’s Mayor Kaczynsi, now president of the country.

One of the German greens who took part in the march was member of the Bundestag Beck, who got hurt in a Christopher Street March in Moskow in May and briefly was held in custody by the police.