Thousands celebrate EuroPride as anti-gay protesters line the route
Reporting from Warsaw
Approximately 10,000 people took to the streets of Warsaw today to celebrate EuroPride 2010.
Anti-gay protesters held up the parade several times, as marchers waited in 35° Celsius heat.
Two thousand police officers separated the marchers from the protesters along the route, and occasionally intervened when the protesters threw water bottles or eggs at the parade.
One of the largest protest groups was the small far-right National Rebirth of Poland (NOP) group. Police in flak jackets were quick to keep them segregated from the march.
At the start of the march, a woman holding a banner that quoted the Bible and condemned the “homosexual sin” was challenged by several marchers.
Speaking to PinkNews.co.uk, gay Conservative minister Nick Herbert said: “We get a few protesters even in the Pride marches in London. But there are thousands of people here who are in support of this.”
“What’s the history of these kinds of marches worldwide – it has been a story that gradually these important values of equality are asserted.”
“Just seeing the reaction of some of the young people on the streets, waving and so on, you do sense that this isn’t something that’s going to go away.”
Though progress was sometimes slow, the parade eventually reached its destination of Constitution Square.
