TALLINN - Organizers of this year's Tallinn Pride event say parliamentarians from a number of foreign countries intend to participate in August's planned parade, the Postimees newspaper reports.
Deputies from the Finnish, Swedish and European Parliaments are expected to attend, and organizers have told The Baltic Times that they intend to invite the Swedish gay rights ombudsman and representatives from Amnesty International to the August 11 festival, though their attendance has not been confirmed.
Estonian police recently said that they were against the march taking place in Tallinn's Old Town.
On the event's website, the spokesperson for Tallinn Pride 2007, Lisette Kampus, responded to press reports that Estonian police are against the routing of the march through the Old Town on the basis that it could interfere with the rights of non-participants to go about their daily business.
"We take comments from police very seriously and have every intention to do whatever we are asked to do to secure the constitutional rights of other citizens. Obviously, this year we have paid a lot more attention to the security of all participants and our foremost wish is to cooperate with the police as much as possible to avoid the shameful acts of violence against Pride participants last year," said Kampus.
Each year that the parade has taken place, it has been protected by a hired security company as the police does not have an obligation to provide security to participants of public events.
The theme of this year's event is 'All Different, All Equal'.
