NewsWrap for the week ending July 30, 2005 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #905, distributed 8-1-05) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Reported this week by Adam Borstein and Cindy Friedman Latvia's first-ever pride march this week was surrounded by angry counter-demonstrators who were barely kept at bay by a heavy police presence. The lesbigay marchers numbered somewhere between 100 and 300 while their opponents were at least 1,000 strong. Counter-demonstrators were already in place at the start of the march following a rally organized by a right-wing extremist group, despite the city having denied them a permit. Marchers stepped off solemnly with rainbow flags and signs including "Lesbian and Gay Rights Are Human Rights" and "God Loves All". But the angry crowd moved with them, waving anti-gay signs and loudly chanting abuse. Several times the counter-demonstrators attempted to block the march and had to be physically removed by police. Eight of them were arrested. Counter-demonstrators pelted marchers with eggs and tomatoes, sprayed them with teargas, seized and destroyed their signs, shouted threats and attempted to attack them. The march had to be rerouted. When the march had circled back to Riga's Anglican Church, marchers were only able to enter the building between lines of police officers holding back the crowd. The counter-demonstrators continued to surround the church and chant throughout the special pride service. When the service ended, police found it necessary to provide buses to evacuate the marchers. Thanks to police efforts, there were no reported injuries. It had required a court order for the march to take place at all. Although the city had originally granted a permit for pride, it withdrew it in the wake of criticism by Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis. According to the European chapter of ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association, that's the first time any Prime Minister of a European Union member state has publicly condemned a pride event. ILGA has been joined by human rights watchdog Amnesty International in expressing concern that such statements from political leaders can encourage homophobic attacks. Much of the opposition to pride was orchestrated. Both the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church and the nation's Roman Catholic Church had campaigned against it, joined by a number of politicians and far right groups. An ecumenical church service staged by all the nation's leading Christian denominations was held near the route on the day of the march, ostensibly to pray for "traditional family values," while the Latvian Christian Radio station devoted the day to special programming of prayers for what it called "the lost souls of homosexuals." The march left a mark on Riga. In its wake, the City Council considered but rejected by a margin of 3-to-1 a proposal to remove the city executive from office for allowing it. That proposal was introduced by a member of the anti-gay Latvia First Party, one of four parties in the national ruling coalition. According to "Baltic Times", Latvia First leader Juris Lujans, who serves as Riga's Deputy Mayor, then announced his resignation, stressing it was solely because the march had not been stopped. Blaming the New Era Party rather than the court order for allowing the march, he declared that party has "no moral standards." There's also been organized religious opposition to the pride march in Belfast, even though it's been held there annually for the last 14 years. Some Christian groups including the Baptist, Catholic and Free Presbyterian Churches formed a "Stop the Parade" campaign, declaring they find pride "morally offensive". They complained to police, who referred the matter to Northern Ireland's Parades Commission. That Commission had been created in 1997 in an effort to stem violent religious conflicts sparked by some traditional parades. This week the Commission ruled entirely in favor of pride, approving its planned route on its scheduled date, and adding none of the restrictions opponents had tried to place on it, such as a dress code. Religious opposition to pride has been steadily increasing, and is blamed for some violence at last year's pride events. Police have recorded an alarming near-tripling in anti-gay attacks in Northern Ireland in the space of a year. Recently there have been separate reports of a gay man and a lesbian who were forced to flee their homes. One survey found that three-quarters of Northern Ireland's gays and lesbians do not feel safe to walk alone at night. Another pride march permit battle is underway in Moscow. Activists Nikolay Alekseyev of GayRussia.ru and Evgeniya Debryanskaya held a press conference this week to announce plans for the Russian capital's first-ever pride march next year on the May 27 anniversary of the decriminalization of private homosexual acts between consenting adults in 1993. But Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov didn't wait to receive their formal request to tell reporters that he'd reject it immediately, saying that he will "protect... the interests of Moscovites and they would not support such an initiative." The activists had anticipated that kind of response and vowed not only to sue the mayor, but to take their case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary. A previous attempt to organize a pride march in Moscow in 2001 had been rejected as an affront to residents' religion. Singapore's big annual pride beach party called "The Nation" was denied its permit this year as "contrary to the public interest," but the lesbigay community is responding with "IndigNation". That's the name organizers are giving to a series of events celebrating pride all through August, reportedly a first for Singapore. The 4-year-old beach party was moved to gay-friendly Phuket in Thailand, but Singapore's community plans to celebrate pride at home with forums, art exhibits and performances, and a barbecue. But some of those events may need to make their own applications for official public entertainment licenses, police indicated, despite a statement by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last year that indoor talks wouldn't require licenses unless they dealt with race or religion. In Canada, the pride march in Halifax this week was a joyous occasion for what was generally reported as several hundred marchers, 20 floats with blaring music, a truckload of gay and lesbian firefighters, and thousands of spectators, some of them joining in the spirit with rainbow flags and specially-designed T-shirts. The "Halifax Herald" newspaper cited Halifax Regional Police as estimating 7,000 participants, with hundreds more watching from the sidelines. In contrast to most pride celebrations around the world this year, there was little in Halifax relating to marriage equality -- national legislation enacted last week ended the biggest part of that struggle with a victory for same-gender couples. But even in tolerant Canada there was a problem. While for the marchers pride may have been an empowering experience, it was just the opposite for about 2,000 local households -- they lost electricity for almost an hour and a half. Nova Scotia Power blamed the parade but not out of homophobia -- service was restored once their teams had removed parade streamers from the power lines. Same-gender couples in New Zealand have already won civil unions almost legally equivalent to marriage, but there's still active opposition to giving them marriage itself. A private member's U.S.-style bill to specifically define marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman came very close to reaching the floor of Parliament this week. But it was pushed back on the agenda so it cannot be taken up until the new Parliament is seated following elections, and it appears that its sponsor Larry Baldock of the United Future Party may be abandoning the effort. The bill was expected to be defeated. Meanwhile, in the U.S. state of Maine, the Secretary of State this week made it official that an initiative to repeal civil rights protections for lesbigay and trans-people has qualified for the November ballot. The legislature and Governor this year enacted a law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and credit, but it's been on hold while the Christian Civic League of Maine went through the process known as a "people's veto". Once before a majority of Maine voters endorsed a similar "people's veto" of an essentially identical civil rights measure; they've also previously rejected an affirmative ballot initiative to enact the same civil rights protections. But on yet another occasion, Maine voters also rejected an initiative that would have made it impossible to add a new protected category to the state's human rights act, a move that directly targeted lesbigays. And finally... it won't be for long, but San Diego, California has become the biggest city in the U.S. with an openly gay or lesbian mayor. At 1.2-million, San Diego is the 7th-largest city in the U.S. After scandals forced the resignations this month of both the mayor and the deputy mayor as well as another Councilmember, the City Council had to act quickly to select a temporary replacement. Openly lesbian Councilmember Toni Atkins was chosen last week to act until a second vote was taken this week, and that vote has confirmed her. But her term will end in early December after a citywide election in which she's not a candidate. San Diego can take it in stride -- San Diego County already elected the nation's first openly gay or lesbian District Attorney, Bonnie Dumanis.