Homophobia and Discrimination on

<strong>Homophobia</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Discrimination</strong> on Grounds of Sexual Orientation <strong>and</strong> Gender Identity in the EU Member States
54
I.3. Freedom of assembly
This section addresses the situation concerning LGBT public demonstrations <strong>and</strong>
events, most notably the Pride celebrations, <strong>and</strong> the issue of access to <strong>and</strong> availability of
premises as venues for LGBT-related activities.
Pride Parades <strong>and</strong> other LGBT public demonstrations <strong>and</strong>
events
Gay Pride is a tradition dating back to June 1969, when LGBT persons in New York
protested in the streets for several days against persistent police harassment of LGBT
individuals <strong>and</strong> venues. The following year, the uprising was commemorated by
demonstrations in several American cities, <strong>and</strong> since then annual demonstrations
against homophobia <strong>and</strong> for LGBT rights have spread around the world. These ‘Pride’
demonstrations, which in many Member States have taken the character of a festive
occasion, have additionally a very important community-building <strong>and</strong> empowering
function for LGBT persons <strong>and</strong> groups. Through interviews it was made apparent that
annual events or demonstrations are organised by local LGBT NGOs in almost every EU
Member State, <strong>and</strong> mostly take place without any problems regarding police or local
authority permissions <strong>and</strong> in some cases they are actually organised in cooperation with
local authorities. 122
Demonstrations are organised under various headings, such as Diversity March,
Rainbow Parade, Equality Parade or Christopher Street Day with various slogans, goals
<strong>and</strong> types of expression. In this regard the participation of the EU itself in such
celebrations is taken as a sign of support for diversity in sexual orientation. Such was the
case in the 2005 Amsterdam Canal Parade where a ‘For Diversity. Against
<strong>Discrimination</strong>’ boat participated as part of the European Commission’s campaign on
non-discrimination. 123 In recent years, however, some events have attracted
considerable negative attention in various EU Member States, <strong>and</strong> controversy over
certain Pride celebrations have become indicative of the centrality of homosexuality as a
political issue.
There are several concerns related to some Member States’ reactions to Pride events in
recent years: the failure of some authorities to guarantee the right to assemble for LGBT
persons, the failure to guarantee LGBT persons protection from counter-demonstrators
<strong>and</strong> the actual use of public LGBT demonstrations by political or religious figures to
encourage anti-LGBT attitudes <strong>and</strong> actions.
122 Information collected during the fieldwork
123 See http://www.stop-discrimination.info/31.0.html (12.01.2009)