Thirteen embassies endorse Prague Pride

Prague, Aug 5 (CTK) - Thirteen embassies seated in Prague, including Canada, Germany, Spain and the United States, supported the Prague Pride homosexual carnival that will be held next week, the British Embassy that initiated the joint support action told CTK Friday.

The British Embassy said this support has no connection with the statements of Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Petr Hajek, the deputy head of Klaus's office, who criticised Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda for being the carnival's patron.

"We express our solidarity with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in the Czech Republic, supporting their right to use this occasion to march together peacefully and lawfully, in order to raise awareness of the specific issues that affect them," the embassies say in their joint statement.

"Our governments seek to combat such discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity by promoting the human rights of all people," the embassies write in the statement, also signed by the ambassadors of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Klaus said the carnival is not a manifestation of homosexuality but "homosexual-ism" which he fears similarly like any other modern "-isms."

Hajek wrote that the homosexual carnival is a pressure action and a political demonstration of a world with deformed values, and he also called homosexuals "deviant fellow citizens."

The opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) and the junior government Public Affairs (VV) said they considered Hajek's statements unacceptable and they called on Klaus to distance from them. Klaus resolutely rejected it.

The homosexual parade will take place on August 13 and it will be held within the five-day Prague Pride festival.