Latvia

Latvia celebrated IDAHOT 2014 with an “express yourself” photo booth in Riga. Allies and families of LGBT activists constituted a big part of the crowd.

LGBT activists and their friends at MOSAIC organization invited community members and supporters to Riga on May 17 to express themselves however you want, in support of the LGBT community.
This year’s celebrations also included a photo session in the Old Town streets and at various key sites in Riga. The photo booth was made public on the internet via a hashtag campaign. The use of internet campaigning was symbolic in this case – designed to raise awareness of the fact that a significant level of homophobic and transphobic abuse takes place online.
The “Fotografēsimies” campaign showed that despite homophobic and transphobic expressions against LGBT people, and their friends and supporters, activists in Latvia manage to maintain a celebrating attitude towards life, and keep striving for a society in which all people are respected and treated as equal, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, national origin or religious belief.
Further information

• Mosaic Orgnization (in Latvian): Facebook page