“Impressive. Actually, even more impressive than three years ago,” says Henk Nijmeijer about how he experienced the Baltic Pride in Vilnius last weekend. The Drenthe Member of Parliament had been invited to speak in the Lithuanian capital during the Baltic variant of the Dutch Gay Pride, and he was not there for the first time. Nijmeijer was also there three years ago, but partly due to the war in neighboring Ukraine, the desire for freedom at the Baltic Pride was greater than ever this time.
“And that gave it a special atmosphere,” said Nijmeijer, who was one of the approximately 17,000 Pride visitors on Saturday. “The war played an important role during Pride. Lithuania is currently still inundated with refugees from neighboring Ukraine, but also from Russia and Belarus, from where LGBTI refugees move to the Baltic States,” he says. The themes of freedom and equality were therefore regularly mentioned at the festival.