Moldova Pride 2025: March defies ban, demands rights
The platform of LGBTQ+ organizations and activists from Moldova launched the Moldova Pride Festival 2025 on Monday, set to run until the end of the current week.
The traditional march, organized for the 13th time, will take place on June 15, despite the Chișinău authorities' recent decision to ban it, organizers announce.
According to Angelica Frolov, executive director of the GENDERDOC-M Information Center, this year's edition will be held under the slogan "Don't play with 5%", representing a political message in the context of the parliamentary elections this autumn.
"Each year, when we talk about the Moldova Pride Festival, a wave of hate speech and misinformation immediately emerges, just as we've seen this year. The LGBT community has already been singled out as a target, an internal enemy, to distort and manipulate public opinion. We wanted to send the message that we are not as few as some believe. We are more than 5%, and political parties should be interested in campaigning for our votes, because 5% is the minimum threshold for a party to enter Parliament," Angelica Frolov stated in a press conference.
This year, the march will be coordinated by BangBang.md.
"My name is Vasile Micleușanu. I was born in 1995 in Micleușeni village, Nisporeni district. I am gay and, like other Moldovans, I grew up with the same traditions and customs. I didn't just appear from nowhere, just like many of those who will attend the march on June 15. We weren't brought here by a secret agenda, nor did we cross borders with a rainbow flag in our pockets. I've been here since 1995, and thousands like me are here too. We want to convey the idea that LGBTQ+ rights are human rights, and human rights are non-negotiable," stated Vasile Micleușanu, the founder of BangBang.md.
"We want a country where we don't have to apologize for who we are; a country where love isn't a danger; where identity isn't a source of shame; and where our lives, as women, as lesbian women, aren't political propaganda, but are central to the political agenda," stated Elvira Drangoi from the "Women for Women" association, at the same press conference.
Another event within the festival will be Pride Park, scheduled for June 14, which will focus on civic participation.
Activists mentioned that the location of several events within the Moldova Pride Festival 2025 will not be announced in advance and can be identified with the help of organizers or signs, for security reasons.
It should be noted that the Pride March 2025 was banned in Chișinău municipality by a May 15 vote of socialist, communist, and National Alternative Movement municipal councilors. During that session, municipal councilors from the Action and Solidarity Party walked out.
GENDERDOC-M condemned the initiative and demanded the withdrawal of the draft decision before it was approved. GENDERDOC-M qualified the initiative as "a serious violation of fundamental human rights – the right to free expression, to assembly, and to equality before the law."
The Pride March in the Republic of Moldova, also known as Moldova Pride, is an annual event organized to promote the rights and visibility of the LGBTQ+ community in the country. In recent years, it has been a sensitive topic due to social and political divisions in the Republic of Moldova, especially between pro-European and pro-Russian tendencies.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
