Queereaster.net

This year the Friendship Days event will take place from May 30 until June 1.  The march will take place on May 31.  In addition to the march, the programme of events is to discuss a political discussion about diversity and competitiveness, an LGBT film screening, an art exhibition, and a rainbow ball.  At this time, 100 employees of the international human rights organisation Amnesty International from various countries have confirmed their participation.  Other foreign guests are also expected.

“We are sure that this year the Friendship Days event will be more successful than in previous years, because our range of supporters has expanded from year to year, and increasing numbers of people are prepared to demand equal rights for all of Latvia’s residents,” says Mozaika board chairwoman Linda Freimane.

Kristine Garina, organiser of the Friendship Days event and a member of the Mozaika board:  “I very much hope that this year, like last year, we will not have any problem in organising the march.  We hope for good co-operation with the police, and we hope that aggressive groups and members of sects will have come to understand that there is no point to their protests.”

This is the third year that the LGBT organisation Mozaika is organising Friendship Days.  In 2006 the City Council banned the march.  Mozaika appealed the decision, and on November 15, 2007, the Department of Administrative Cases of the Latvian Supreme Court Senate found that the Council’s decision was unlawful.  Last summer the Friendship Days march took place in the Vermanes Garden park in Riga, and some 700 people took part.

For more information: http://www.mozaika.lv