Georgian LGBTI activists are battling with the police in order to celebrate Pride.Īs the powerful Orthodox Church and extremist groups actively protest against the LGBTI community, police claim it won’t be able to protect Pridegoers during a public event. Tbilisi Pride in Georgia Anti-LGBTI protesters get violent at an IDAHOBIT event in Tbilisi | Photo: Facebook Moreover, police arrested at least three people. Some said plainclothes security officers stopped them and used violence on them. More than 100 demonstrators took to the streets of the capital, Havana. Activists then organized an alternative march on the same day, Saturday 11 May. In May 2019, communist authorities in Cuba unexpectedly cancelled the annual conga against homophobia. Pride in Cuba LGBTI rights supporters taking part in the unauthorized march through Havana | Photo: Twitter And they might face violence by extremists groups if they do go ahead. Whether authorities claim security concerns or blame Pride to promote ‘dangerous’ values, LGBTI events often don’t get the green light.
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Many LGBTI communities put their effort, time and money in parades that don’t always take place. But a smooth march isn’t always the case. Taking to the streets to march in fabulous outfits and unapologetically affirm your identity is one of the crucial elements of most parades in Western, liberal countries. In certain nations where being LGBTI is illegal – or the so-called ‘LGBTI propaganda’ is – governments and local authorities have banned Pride parades on multiple occasions.
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This time, however, the Russian propaganda machine allegedly ran out of excuses and arguments that might stand in the way of what is happening in Ukraine.A few weeks into Pride month 2019, it is worth remembering not every country has the freedom to organize a parade. After all, the congregation of ecclesiastical and political leadership in Moscow is well known. Those who know about ecclesiastical matters certainly did not expect a clear condemnation of the Russian invasion by the Patriarch of Moscow. No wonder more and more Bishops of the Church of Metropolitan Onufriy in Ukraine are calling for the suspension of the connection with the Moscow Patriarchate.
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Mostly the Russians, to whom it is addressed, but also the Metropolitans, Bishops and the clergy of the Russian Church in Ukraine, who see their country bombed and their spiritual father “informs” them that everything is done for the … gay parades. With the Sunday sermon, Patriarch Kirill seems to underestimate the intelligence of the faithful. It often even gave the impression that it “encouraged” the actions of Russian President Putin. Do you know what this test is? The test is very simple and at the same time terrible – this is a gay parade”.Īnd Kirill continues: “The demands on many to hold a gay parade are a test of loyalty to that very powerful world and we know that if people or countries reject these demands, then they do not enter into that world, they become strangers to it.”įrom the beginning of the war that Russia started in Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill provoked with his attitude, that of not condemning the invasion and bombing of civilians.
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Today there is such a test for the loyalty of this government, a kind of pass to that “happy” world, the world of excess consumption, the world of visible “freedom”. “In the Donbass there is rejection, a fundamental rejection of the so-called values that are offered today by those who claim world power. In particular, in his sermon, the Patriarch of Moscow said that for eight years, efforts are being made to destroy what is in effect in Donbass. And this may not come as a surprise, as it is in the spirit of all the statements made by the Russian Primate since the beginning of the war, but at least they cause to wonder what he said in the same sermon, about the causes of the war.