Activists from Moldova’s LGBT community on Sunday held a Pride march that for the first time needed no heavy police cordons to protect them from protesters largely linked to the Orthodox Church.
The peaceful event, with hundreds strolling through the center of the capital, Chisinau, signaled a change in social attitudes, though public opposition to equal rights for gays still runs high in many former Soviet states.
Since the 2020 election of pro-European Moldovan President Maia Sandu, the nation has set a foreign policy goal of joining the EU — a pledge underscored by an outdoor public assembly last month attended by thousands.
Photo: AFP
“Judging from the march, European Moldova is progressively moving toward a normal society of people with diverse views,” said Alexei Marcicov of the event’s organiser, GenderDoc-M.
“Political will is still needed in order for us to be accepted in normal fashion in this society,” Marcicov added.
About 100 Orthodox clerics and their sympathizers stood at one point on the parade route with placards reading: “We stand for the traditional family.”
However, there was no contact between the two opposing groups and no need for police intervention.
Moldova lies between Ukraine and EU member Romania and about 90 percent of its population professes ties to one of two branches of the Orthodox Church — one linked to Russia and the other to Romania.
The Moscow-linked church denounced the march; the Romanian branch tried to play down its importance.
Movements for LGBT rights are also making progress in Ukraine, where a 2021 march took place without incident.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has expressed sympathy for upholding gay rights while ruling out constitutional changes to allow single-sex marriages while the nation is at war.
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