The diagnostic instrument of Baltic
Pride 2012 in Riga can be put away until 2015 and the results
examined. Such events reveal societal and official attitudes toward
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LBGT) persons and the broader
issues of free speech, free assembly and tolerance of diverse views.
They also give some insights into the level of education and ability
to reason critically of Latvian society as a whole.
My reading of the diagnostic results –
the acute phase of the syndrome of homophobic mass hysteria in the
streets is waning. Official response to the undeniably controversial
event has shifted from hostility (former politician Ainārs Šlesers)
to avoidance (except for a statement to a Pride event in 2008/?/ by
then President Valdis Zatlers) to cautious expressions of sympathy
and support this year. Defense Minister Artis Pabriks expressed his
support for equal rights and Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs even
dropped by the Baltic Pride rally in Vērmanes Park in downtown Riga.
Riga mayor Nils Ušakovs reportedly briefly stopped in at a
reception held by the LGBT organization “Mozaika” ahead of the
June 2 event. He is also said to have sent an SMS to Kristīne
Garina congratulating her on the success of the march.
The reaction of society at large has
also changed somewhat. There were a couple of hundred people lining
the route of the Baltic Pride march, most watched with curiosity or
indifference. A small group of neo-Nazis, led by Igors Šiškins,
blew whistles and waved placards equating “pederasty” with
pedophilia. That was it, as far as public expressions of hostility,
except for a drunk who was arrested for tossing an egg toward the
marchers.
Reaction on internet portals was
another story. One could almost say that the screaming mobs of 2008
and 2009 have gone virtual, moving from the streets to the internet.
Here are some representative samples:
Rotten
thinking, views, norms, it is repulsive to see these people doing it
and being proud of it. Homosexuality IS a societal illness, it is not
put into people by nature, it is simply crippled thinking, an error
of the brain, such people should be sent for therapy!!!
Should
have brought in Russians from Russia to take care of that lot and
that ambassador (meaning US
ambassador Judy Garber, who spoke at the Pride event.) Our
men are softies, they let those stink in downtown Riga, whose place
is with the Danish pigs (there
have been complaints about the stench from large Danish owned
piggeries in the Latvian countryside).
Children
are not born in the US because homosexual relations are widespread
and recognized, and these childless couples travel around the
post-Soviet countries, including Latvia, looking for whiye children
for adoption. The home page of the US Embassy explains how to adopt
Latvian children. That is the result of massive homosexual
propaganda.
Because
of the queers, the human right of free movement of free movement in
public places is violated in Riga. They must die off just like the
mammoths!!! If only they could all croak from their diseases!!! Ass
fuckers!!! Supporters of pedophilia!!!
The
quotes run the gamut from violent hatred to theories based on a
bizarre understanding of reality both outside and inside Latvia. They
reflect ignorance, knee-jerk negative gut reactions to all that is
different, strange or foreign and an almost total lack of critical
thinking based on reason and evidence. They show a primitive,
ignorance, fear and inferiority-complex based way of “thinking”
that could have been greatly reduced in 20 years of independence, but
was not.
Maybe
there is some hope in the younger generation, the “alternative”,
open-minded, happy-faced young people joining in the pride march and
visible here and there elsewhere (such as at the one-year anniversary
of the radical Latvian website publikai.lv, or earlier this year, at
the protests against ACTA). But that, too, may be illusory, as these
young people also know that the world (or at least Europe) is open to
them and welcoming. Most of them would, after a little adjustment,
fit quickly into the cosmopolitan youth culture of London, Berlin,
Copenhagen or Stockholm, and probably feel less and less welcome in
Latvia.
Still,
maybe there has been a small step forward and Latvia may be advancing
out of the long post-Soviet mental shadow that still cloaks much of
the population.
