Australian embassies support European Pride
Australian embassies have sent messages of support to Pride festivals in Romania and Slovakia.
The Australian Embassy in Belgrade, which is responsible for Romania, issued a joint statement with the Embassies of Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Holland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“We express our support for, and solidarity with, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in Romania,” the joint statement said.
“We support the right of these communities to use this traditional occasion to march together peacefully and lawfully, in order to raise awareness of the specific issues that affect them.
“Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people should be free to enjoy the rights and freedoms to which people of all nations are entitled.
This year’s Belgrade GayFest was largely incident-free as a large police presence was on hand to prevent far-right activists attacking participants as they had in previous years.
Meanwhile, Australia’s embassy in Vienna, responsible for Slovakia, sent a message of support for the inaugural Bratislava Pride festival. Neo-Nazis throwing stones and tear gas canisters attacked the rally after pushing past spectators.
The rally continued, but a subsequent march was cancelled after organisers received warning that more far-right activists were gathering in nearby streets to launch further attacks.
The Australian Embassy was joined by the embassies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Holland, Ireland, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Slovenia, and Germany.
“As we welcome the first LGBT Pride march in Bratislava, we express support and solidarity with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Slovakia,” the statement read.
“Today, many individuals around the world continue to face discrimination, both systemic and overt, based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. Everyone, including LGBT people, should be free to enjoy the rights and freedoms laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“We fully support the Slovak LGBT community in their right to march.”
The Slovak Government has come under fire after Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák suggested Bratislava Pride hire private security to protect itself in future, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia, Dušan Čaplovič, who is also the Minister for Human Rights and Minorities, suggested discussion of homosexuality required tolerance on both sides in the wake of the attacks.
Amnesty International has called on the Slovak Government to prosecute those responsible.
The Embassy of Australia also supported the Joint Embassy Statement in Budapest for which Hungarian LMBT (LGBT) were extremely appreciative.
Of course, if Mark and Jean want the Foreign Ministry to be entirely consistent, they don’t need to do anything at all. Are you saying that you *don’t* want human rights for LGBT people in Bratislava? (or Bucharest?). The real inconsistency is that the Australian Embassy based in Belgrade, joined a statement for the Bucharest GayFest in neighbouring Romania but did not, to my knowledge issue one for Belgrade PRIDE 10:10:10.
It may be that a statement was not issued in Moscow simply because citizens of Australia didn’t ask them well enough in advance, bureaucrats often need a few weeks.
People would do well to remember that diplomacy is the “art of the possible” and that Russia while a member of the Council of Europe has no aspirations to be a member of the EU. This gives far less diplomatic opportunities. Russia is a rather larger nut to crack and you don’t know what they are doing “behind the scenes” in order to move the agenda forward.
yes absolutely. I was in Moscow last May for the Pride. The organizers told me that the Australian (and NZ) Embassies were asked if they could issue a statement in support of the Pride. They denied… It’s is easy to speak about human rights in Bratislava where Australia has no interest but clearly, they are scared of Russia where there is oil & gaz…
Good for the Embassies of Australia that they joined other Embassies in supporting Prides in the eastern part of Europe. But where were the Aussies (not to mention the Yanks, Brits, French, Germans and other European Union countries when in came to the mother of all Eastern Europe Prides? Not a peep of support from said Embassies for Moscow where the gay-hating mayor banned the Pride for the fifth, er, straight year.