LATVIA: Skinheads and Christian groups hurled abuse, eggs and bags of human faeces at participants in a Gay Pride march through the Latvian capital, Riga.
About 50 homosexuals and their supporters, including members of the European Parliament, were confronted by an angry mob when they emerged from a church service in central Riga at the start of Saturday's gay festival.
Eggs and bags of excrement hit several of those who emerged from the church, including Anglican clerics who had helped organise the event. "I think Latvia got a little smaller today," said pastor Juris Calitis.
Riga city council banned the parade on security grounds last week, and gay marchers complained of receiving little protection from police as they moved from the Mass to a swiftly arranged alternative event in a hotel.
"I had the dubious pleasure to see again today, with my own eyes, how people can be driven by hatred and fear," said Dutch MEP Sophie Int'Veld, after leaving the church by a back entrance to avoid the projectiles.
"Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is forbidden in the EU treaty and freedom of assembly is a basic human right. It is high time to discuss these matters and for Europe to stop looking the other way," she said.
But men like Viktors Biese, leader of a Latvian radical organisation, were unmoved.
"Homosexuals are dirty sinners. They are immoral people and they don't have a place in normal society," he said.
"We have to stop them now. We can't wait until they start demanding the right to get married and adopt children."
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