esmaspäev, august 14, 2006

Reykjavik Pride

Well, it looks like it's homosexual week here at Itching for Eestimaa - what better than to kill time between now and Arnold Rüütel's reinstatement than talking about controversial topics like gays, gay marriage, and pronkssõdur (by the way, is the pronkssõdur actually gay, what are your thoughts?)

Iceland may smell like sulfur, but at least their pride rallies go off without a bunch of boneheads throwing sticks, rocks, eggs etc. And as depraved as those sons and daughters of Vikings may be, their society has not fallen for it. When I wrote up a school report about Icelanders in 1991 there were 259,742 of those gay-loving whalemeat lovers. Last year there were 296,737 of them. So much for the "gay acceptance = death of society" theory. Oh well, courtesy to Blogging Reykjavik for their pride photos.

Hey it looks like Tallinn, but it's not:





9 kommentaari:

Anonüümne ütles ...

Are you coming down with a gay flu?
I lost count of the number of gay news.
But while we're at it, I thought I shared some photos of the Stockholm Pride.
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I'm SO sorry me and my little girls didn't have time to go cheer for them (had to catch the stupid ferry). And the same thing with the Tallinn Pride - we had to be somewhere else.
But it would have been great though. All the colours and those funny looking women... my children would have been thrilled.
All these perfectly normal people declaring that they are perfectly normal (and if you would look at the photos, you would see they are)
I really can't understand why they wouldn't "pride" their normality and sexual orientation daily. Beacause they really should!

Anonüümne ütles ...

Woow.. naked boobies.. that would have shut up the skinheads, why didn't we have that :'(

Plus the Reikjavik event looked so harmless, just normal people with flags. Not like Tallinn, where obscene men dressed as women were licking eachother and acting as morons, screaming around on the street.

Giustino ütles ...

Not like Tallinn, where obscene men dressed as women were licking eachother and acting as morons, screaming around on the street.

From what I understand their parade route went right by the 'skinhead bar' in Old Town. Who planned that route? Wouldn't it make more sense to do it someplace like Liivalaia - far away from closed in spaces and skinhead bars???

Giustino ütles ...

I mean if you held a pride event anywhere and went past the wrong place - skinhead bar, fire house, fraternity row on a college campus - I can guarantee you that something BAD would happen.

Anonüümne ütles ...

"Wouldn't it make more sense to do it someplace like Liivalaia - far away from closed in spaces and skinhead bars???"...sure its more reasonable to plan such a route not close to the mentioned places but I guess that the old town was just the place where the participants of that event could reach the widest publicity...hmm, and i guess thats why this route...to make the public notice about their affair...but obviously did spend they organizer too much trust in proper police support...anyway, it was quite risky to choose this route but should we blame the victim (that french guy or the organizer) or the aggressors for the violence?

Giustino ütles ...

anyway, it was quite risky to choose this route but should we blame the victim (that french guy or the organizer) or the aggressors for the violence?

No way in hell do you blame the victim here. As I have written earlier, Estlanders put up with British stag parties, so their tolerance level is actually quite high.

I was actually surprised to learn that there exists an actual 'skinhead bar.'

In an ideal world, you should be able to march anywhere. But FOR NEXT YEAR'S RALLY, maybe a route that doesn't go past the 'skinhead bar' could be best.

Eppppp ütles ...

Some gay bars/clubs are also in old town of Tallinn.

Anonüümne ütles ...

Well..
Being one of those who set up the initial route 3 years ago (and it has stayed the same), mind me sayin that there are no, well, "dangerous" bars on the way :)
The route goes like this:
Sauna-Müürivahe-Vabaduse väljak-Harju mägi-Lossi plats-Pikk jalg-Mündi-Raekoja plats-Viru-Sauna.
It starts from Sauna street because it is the location of 2 gay clubs/bars, and this route was acceptable for the police (or as they say: possible to guarantee safety...) and also it's suitably not very long, not very short. Plus, no need to arrange traffic (and pay for this).
I wonder, actually, where did you get the whole skinhead-bar thing anyway? :) If you are talking about the incident that Silvar Laanemäe mentioned in some portal or newspaper, actually, what he was talking about was how the skins attacked him and his friends on their way home (and they had to pass a place called Woodstock, which.. well, skinhead-bar Woodstock, really??).

Anyhow, the rumours about Latvian skins are unfortunately true, we (and the police) did have information about it.

Giustino ütles ...

Thanks for clearing the whole 'skinhead bar' issue up, Lisette. I don't recall there being an actual bar frequented by skinheafs in Tallinn.

Whatever you do, don't be too discouraged. I used Stonewall as an example that even in places where it is now considered 'safe' to have a Pride rally, like New York, it was very unsafe to even be openly gay just a few decades ago.