Tuesday 6 March 2007

Taking A Stand In Riga?

I have to say that I am in no way a gay activist. I like to just get on with my daily life, do my work, spend the weekends with Simon, maybe catch a film. It is all quite humdrum really.

This summer though, the Pinkies have been invited to perform at a Pride march, not in London, but in Riga, the capital of Latvia. Apparently, the London and Riga Prides are twinned. The official website is here, but I must warn you that it is possibly the most visually annoying page I have seen, ever. There is also a really noisy song which cannot be turned off, so make sure your volume is down before clicking on the link.

Anyway, today Tim sent a snippet around by email which is quite eye-opening. In particular:

In an interview with Diena newspaper, Janis Birks said he was ashamed at events last year, when bags of human excrement were thrown at gay marchers.


This almost begs some kind of light-hearted response. But we are really very lucky in London, and can take things for granted. Looking at the BBC archive, the combination of "Riga" and "gay" don't seem to sit well together. The Pink Singers were formed to sing at London Pride in 1983, perhaps we should be singing in Riga in 2007?

I wonder whether my pac-a-mac is pee and poo proof.

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