Tennis legend Martina Navratilova and Rhode Island Congressman
David Cicilline have expressed their support for Prague Pride 2013.
Now in its third year, Prague Pride is the largest LGBT festival
in Eastern Europe, attracting thousands of revelers to the week-long
event.
Cicilline, an openly gay Democrat, is supporting the festival in
person.
“I think it is very important to support Prague Pride and pride
celebrations around the world, because they raise the visibility of
our community and they make an important point of how critical it is
that we recognize the rights of gays and lesbians to be treated
equally under the law and to be free from discrimination of any
kind,” Cicilline
told Radio Prague. “These celebrations are a wonderful
opportunity for good public discussion about the issues involved and
there’s a whole week of debates and talks and seminars on the
importance of coming out and respecting equality for the gay and
lesbian community. So I am thrilled to be here and very proud that
our ambassador has been such a strong supporter of Prague Pride and
of this whole week of events.”
Organizers expected 15,000 people to join Saturday's Gay Pride
Parade.
Navratilova, a Czech-American, showed her support in a video
released Wednesday by the NOH8 Campaign.
“Please support Prague Pride,” Navratilova says in the
14-second video. “We need you.” (The video is embedded on this
page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)