today was - is - christopher street day, and it was all over the world. but not everywhere people who wanted to celebrate it were free to do it - not at all, about which we will never know, or not without disturbances, which i ind worthy writing about onmy first day home from holidays on tenerife.
in brno in czech republic, 20 of the 500 participants of the gay pride "rainbow parade" were injured from tear gas attacks by right wing "counter-protestants".
in sofia in bulgaria more than 80 right wing extremists have been arrested for attacking the "rainbow parade" with fireworks. the president of bulgaria gave allowance to the parade even after several re-locations and warning from amnesty international. he states that he is tolerant towards people of different religion or social satutes but "demonstrations of this alignment" disagrred with him.
i'll tell you freely, to me sexual orientation is actually only interesting if i'm interested myself, that is, it was when i was. of course i nurse my general curiousity about who's having sex with whom, but apart from that sex partners weren't that big a base for judgement on other people to me. i don't see the point of celebrating your homosexuality in a free country - i don't run around dancing and singing because i'm not interested in other women or like to dress as man, now, do i? but of course, repressions have been plenty and if there's improvement in a colourful, joyful parade, if there's more power to the masses than to the singled-out small-town boy who discovers his love for his gym teacher (o vice versa) - well, everyone else is having their parades and it's fun, so go ahead.
so christopher street day is only so much interesting to me that it points out the lack of tolerance and liberality of our close neighours, countries that are members of the european union. it scares the shit out of me that there is such a laxity towards fascism, an allowance for intolerance that is not conceiveable in its publicity and implicitness in the western parts of europe, not even, i should think, in the more southern, catholic parts of europe.
their just too close to be comfortable. so in heart and mind, i support the rainbowers in czech republic and bulgaria: more power to you.
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