Slovakia
Pride parade in Bratislava commemorates terrorist attack
Participants in the Pride parade in Bratislava. photo
© Pavol Zachar/TASR/dpa
In October 2022, a right-wing extremist shot two people belonging to the LGBTIQ scene. On the occasion of the Pride Parade a few months later, the organizers presented themselves as “proud and indestructible”.
For the first time since the terrorist attack on the gay bar “Teplaren” in Nine months ago, thousands of people gathered in the Slovak capital for this year’s Rainbow Pride Parade (Duhovy Pride in Slovak). Amid the scorching heat on Saturday, members of the LGBTIQ community and their supporters paraded through the city center celebrating society’s sexual and gender diversity at the central Freedom Square near the Government Office.
Despite numerous verbal hostilities and violent attacks, including an assassination attempt last October, the minority is “proud and indestructible,” according to a video call for the event. During the assassination, a young right-wing extremist shot two people belonging to the LGBTIQ scene and then himself. It is now all the more important to make yourself visible, explained one of the co-organizers on the TV news channel TA3. The abbreviation LGBTIQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, intersexual and queer.
As in previous years, a “Pride in the family” rally for the traditional family model of father, mother and children took place on the same day, which Christian conservative and right-wing extremist organizations had called for. The “Alliance for the Family” as the main organizer emphasized that this was “not a protest”. However, the same organization had arranged a homophobic referendum eight years ago, with which the non-recognition of same-sex partnerships in Slovakia should be fixed for all future and protected against intervention by the European Union. The referendum failed at the time due to insufficient participation.