Pride is a protest. Often times the revolutionary aspect of our Pride celebrations is forgotten in its revelry and commerce. For the queer people of Lublin, Poland it was far from a party when they were met with a violent reminder of how important their display of pride was, when 200 counter-protestors turned up and started throwing stones and bottles.
It was the first ever Pride for the people of Lublin, a small city of around 350,000 people, and around 1,500 people turned up to the Equality march this past Saturday.
Unfortunately they were met by 200 anti-LGBT+ protesters (a figure estimated by police) who used violence to go against the peaceful display by members of the LGBT+ community. They threw hard object at those marching, which prompted police to ban the counter-protest.
The decision to ban the counter-protest took less than an hour, but the anti-LGBT+ protestors weren’t willing to leave right away. This led to the police having to use water cannons and tear gas in an attempt to get them to leave.
Harrowing footage of the scenes at the Pride march were later uploaded online:
A police spokesperson released a statement in which they said “we have arrested several people but I am sure the number will increase”.
They also revealed that two police officers were injured by the counter-protestors.
A few weeks ago the mayor of Lublin banned the Pride march due to “security concerns”, but local reports said that the regional governor had opposed the pride parade because it promoted “pedophilia”.
This ban was overturned by a court of appeals last week, which allowed the first Pride march to take place.
