Tirana Pride 2014 aims to raise the public awareness support for equal rights without discrimination for sexual minorities.
TIRANA, Feb. 7 – A group of human rights and gay rights organizations say they will jointly organize the first ever LGBT Pride in Albania.
Under the slogan “Say Yes, Love,” PINK Embassy in collaboration with the Human Rights House in Albania and Open Mind Spectrum Albania say they will organize a march for diversity and equality that will bring together LGBT organizations, women’s groups, human rights organizations, public institutions, parliamentarians and politicians, representatives of the diplomatic corps, international and LGBT partner organizations and citizens who believe in the values of equality and dignity.
Tirana Pride 2014 aims to raise the public awareness support for equal rights without discrimination for LGBT persons, their families and supporters.
In many places across the world Pride events are a great social event for equality, love, elimination of discrimination and the protection of human dignity. But in the conservative Balkans, they have often encountered a public backlash.
During the last two years civic organizations have held the Festival of Diversity, which they say has served as “an empowerment tool of the LGBT community in Albania, which have taken place every May 17, the International Day against homophobia and transphobia.”
Like the rest of the region, Albanian society is considered to be one of Europe’s most homophobic, though the laws for protecting sexual minority rights are in line with those of the EU.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in Albania in 1995 and it has been illegal since 2010 to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
