No pride in Moldova; gay event attacked by homophobic mob

Shameful: A total of just 9 protesters, with mouths taped with 'rainbow' tape, outside Chisinau's City Hall (Photo: GenderDoc-M)

CHISINAU (Tiraspol Times) - Organizers of the Moldova ‘Gay Pride’ – Rainbow over the Dniester – were prevented from marching by the Chisinau city authorities, who threatened them with arrest if they displayed their homosexuality in public.

Nevertheless, last weekend’s LGBT Pride – the sixth in the Moldovan capital – was staged in a muted, limited format despite a ban on public gay events by local authorities.

The scaled down Pride event was attacked by homophobic mob.

A small protest demonstration lasted only 15 minutes, with a mere 20 gay activists participating. They were outnumbered by a larger contingent of gay-bashing counter-demonstrators, hurling insults and throwing eggs directly at the gays.

" - About 30 people took part in a counter-demonstration, mainly young people from an extremist organization," said Boris Balanetkii, the director of GenderDoc-M which had attempted to organized this year's “Pride”.

Nine of the twenty gay participants taped their mouths with "rainbow tape" to demonstrate that their right to free speech had been violated by Chisinau's ban on public activities.

Instead of the outlawed Pride Parade, the twenty gays in Chisinau wanted to just lay flowers at a public monument in Chisinau, the Monument to the Victims of Repression. But when participants arrived at the Monument to the Victims of Repression, they were met by a large group of police who prevented the laying of flowers.

The participants instead laid their flowers at the feet of the police before withdrawing. According to police at the scene, official permission from City Hall was needed for the gays to lay flowers at a monument.

GenderDoc-M have called on the EU to intervene on their behalf and pressure the Moldovan authorities to offer them the right to assembly and free speech. They have not made a similar request with regards to the government in Pridnestrovie / Transnistria.

Tiraspol as alternative venue

In mid-April, the nearby city of Tiraspol welcomed the rejected marchers to their city. By then, it was too late to move the logistics but the offer still stands and there is little risk of instigation of any provocative counter demonstrations in the capital of Pridnestrovie where gay marchers will be able to show their pride with the official welcome of the city authorities.

" - We will do our best to ensure that next year’s public demonstration by the LGBT community will take place not just as a protest action but as proper Pride Parade," said Balanetkii.

For next year's Pride event, Tiraspol is positioning itself as an open-minded alternative venue is Chisinau persists in denying Moldova's gays their permit to march in public.

Western organizations support events which straddle the river and bring the two sides of the Dniester together. A pride march organized with the support of civil society groups will straddle the border, showing Moldova that at least some of Pridnestrovie's Soviet-era baggage has been left behind, and that the unrecognized country is today more tolerant towards its minorities.

The local Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community is represented with an office in Bender, the second largest city in Pridnestrovie after Tiraspol, its capital. (With information from UK Gay News)

See also:
» Tiraspol welcomes gays banned from marching in Chisinau, Moldova
» EU Parliament group slams Moldova over gay crackdown; praises PMR