Source: Deutsche Welle, Radio Netherlands, Associated Press via IHT, Irish Times, Belfast Telegraph

An estimated half-million people turned out this weekend for  Amsterdam's 13th annual Gay Pride canal parade. The numbers were similar Saturday in Stockholm where about 45,000 people showed up for a downtown march that marked the finale of the Swedish capital's week-long gay pride festivities.

Some 450,000 people lined the parade route in Stockholm according to police and organizers, Associated Press reports. The annual march was held for the first time in 1977.

The massive celebrations in the Dutch and Swedish capitals are one sign that gays and lesbians in most of western Europe enjoy legal rights and levels of tolerance that would have been almost unthinkable 15 years ago. But in eastern Europe, hostility and discrimination against homosexuals still run deep, Deutsche Welle reports.

It is also a sign of a continuing cultural divide between east and west that celebrations in the west only rarely prompt protests, according to a feature in the German newsmagazine.

Gay pride festivals dot the summer calendar all across Europe -- from Berlin to Eskilstuna, Sweden, from London to Zaragoza, Spain. These days, the events usually raise few eyebrows. Families often bring their children along to admire men in stiletto heels and boas, or in almost nothing at all.

A record eighty boats carried thousands of gays and lesbians clad in scanty or extravagant clothing through Amsterdam's historic center.

This year's canal parade was, for the first time, joined by a large number of politicians. Among them were Education and Culture Minister Ronald Plasterk, who is also responsible for gender equality, Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst and Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen, Radio Netherlands reports.

The city's police, the armed forces, several political parties and other social organizations, including one for LGBT youth, all joined the parade with boats of their own.

But just a few hours' plane ride to the east of the Dutch capital, the situation is very different, Deutsche Welle reports.

In May, Moscow's city government tried to ban a planned gay pride march for the third year in a row. The city's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, had once referred to gay rights marches as "satanic."

The year before, activists gathered outside Moscow City Hall to protest the government march ban. They were pelted by eggs and assaulted by orthodox Christian and neo-Nazi groups while Moscow police harassed and arrested peaceful demonstrators.

Acceptance is anything but total even in the relatively liberal west. That was highlighted this week by Gay Pride events in Belfast where thousands turned out for a parade Saturday, but faced members of the region's dominant Presbyterian Church who held at least two small protests around the parade.

The annual parade in Belfast is took place amid an increasingly bitter debate about homosexuality in the region triggered by controversial remarks made by a Democratic Unionist MP.

Iris Robinson, the wife of Stormont First Minister Peter Robinson, recently claimed gay sex was an abomination.

She was also quoted by parliamentary record keepers Hansard stating homosexuality is more vile than child abuse.

The Strangford MP later distanced herself from those comments and claimed they did not accurately reflect her views.

However, the born-again Christian, who is chairwoman of Stormont’s health committee, has stood by her view that homosexuality is a sin, prompting critics to call for her resignation.

Her stance has sparked a wider debate in Northern Ireland with gay rights campaigners and religious adherents exchanging firmly held views in a variety of media outlets.

Political opponents of Mrs Robinson have also staged a number of demonstrations in the week leading up to the pride event.

But the tension surrounding Belfast's parade is remarkably mostly because it is so uncommon in western Europe.

The massive gay pride parade in Stockholm this year was the culmination of the nine-day EuroPride festival that is held in a different European city every year.

Pride chairman Jonah Nylund said one objective this year was to call attention to prejudice in Eastern Europe, where, he said, "there are constant attacks or bans on gay pride arrangements."

"The difference (between eastern and western Europe) for gay people is sometimes a really depressing experience," said Tomasz Szypula, secretary of the Campaign Against Homophobia, a Polish organization that works for legal and social equality for gays and lesbians.

Szypula pointed out that young people travel throughout the continent, and visit places like Spain where gay couples can get married. "And they come back home and ask 'why can't it be like that here?'" he said.

Same-sex marriage is not legal anywhere in eastern Europe; three countries there have instituted constitutional bans. Only Hungary and the Czech Republic have passed legislation giving legal recognition to same-sex couples.

While in the Netherlands, 82 percent of adults favor allowing same-sex marriage, the approval ratings drop off precipitously as one moves east across a map of the European Union, according to a 2006 survey by the European Commission. In Slovakia, it is 19 percent, Poland, 17 percent and at the bottom of the list is Romania, where just 11 percent favor allowing same-sex unions.

As in Northern Ireland, acceptance of gay and lesbian people is weakest in countries with strong alliances between churches and politics.

Countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic did not have strong churches, and among the former Warsaw Pact nations, they had a slightly more western orientation, Deutsche Welle reports. Therefore, acceptance levels of homosexuality are higher than in places such as Lithuania and Latvia, which were more firmly in the Russian sphere of influence, according to Juris Lavrikovs, communications manager for the Europe chapter of the International Lesbian and Gay Association.

"Political elite in countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic have made it very clear, they oriented toward the west, toward the EU," he said, speaking on the phone from EuroPride in Stockholm. "Poland and Latvia are still finding their identities."

Lavrikovs is quick to say while the reports of pride parade bans, hate speech by politicians and homophobic assaults on the streets in eastern Europe make headlines, progress is being made, and should not be overlooked.

These nations' joining the EU has already had a measurable affect on attitudes towards gay and lesbians, he said. One EU directive also prevents discrimination in the workplace according to sexual orientation across the bloc.

"By being part of EU, they signed up to a community of values," Lavrikovs said. "EU membership and the new openness help the cause of equality."

And he, for one, is optimistic that eastern Europe will one day be on a par with western Europe vis-a-vis gay and lesbian rights.

"So a lot of things there are happening very fast, including lots of clashes which are quite disturbing," he said. "Society hasn't quite caught up yet, but things are developing."

Source: Hurdles Still High for Gays in Eastern Europe | Deutsche Welle 
Amsterdam Gay Pride draws half a million | Radio Netherlands
Stockholm gay pride parade draws tens of thousands | International Herald Tribune (AP)
Public asked to support NI Gay Pride event | Irish Times
Thousands attend Belfast Gay Pride parade | Belfast Telegraph