Prague, Aug 15 (CTK) – More than 10,000 people took part in a Prague Pride march of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals through the city centre Saturday, drawing protest from a handful of homosexuality opponents.
Mayor of Prague Adriana Krnacova (ANO) and several celebrities supported the march with their participation.
The colourful march, with some participants riding on 15 allegoric floats, dancing to the tunes of reproduced music, went from Wenceslas Square, crossed the Vltava River and went up the Letna plain where a music programme was prepared.
The police estimate the number of participants at 15,000 maximally, the Gay Initiative chairman, Jiri Hromada, said 18,000 left Wenceslas Square and their number gradually rose to 35,000.
Most of them carried rainbow flags, the symbol of the homosexual community, or used other rainbow symbols.
Krnacova and the celebrities were joined by U.S. nun Jeannine Gramick, whose appearance on Catholic soil during this week’s Prague Pride festival, was banned by Cardinal Dominik Duka.
The 120-strong London Gay Men’s Chorus entertained the participants with popular songs and original choreographies.
“I think it is an integral part of Prague just as the Prague Marathon and I hope that it will be so in the future, too,” Krnacova, who came to the march for the fifth time, told CTK.
“This is no demonstration, but normal human joy at being different,” Hromada said.
Before the march set out on its track, around 30 homosexuality opponents staged a protest against it in the upper part of Wenceslas Square. They defended the traditional family and Christian values.
The protest was convoked by Pavel Matejny, who in the past organised anti-Romany marches in various towns and who dismissed the Prague Pride festival on Facebook as “absolutely disgusting and tasteless” and called for “national defence.”
About 100 people took part in the March for the Family, staged by the Young Christian Democrats organisation in Prague centre. It was held under the aegis of Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Belobradek (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL), Duka and Prague city councillor for culture Jan Wolf (KDU-CSL).
ms/dr