Hundreds participate in Reclaim Pride march through central Prague

Several hundred people participated in the Reclaim Pride march through Prague on Saturday. The event served to promote equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community, as well protest how mainstream other Pride events have become.

The annual Prague Pride festival is also currently taking place in the Czech capital, but its annual march was not organized this year due to concerns regarding the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Saturday's Reclaim Pride event began at 1 p.m. at Hradčanské náměstí near Prague Castle, with several speakers addressing the crowd.

Džamila Stehlíková, chairwoman of the extra-parliamentary Liberal Ecology Party and former minister for human rights and minorities, said in her speech that some politicians can be expected to lash out against the LGBTQ+ community before the October general election, aiming to set people against each other.

Lenka Králová, from the Trans*parent group, recalled President Miloš Zeman's statements from June, calling transgender people "repugnant".

"It is clear to me that Miloš Zeman does not care about transgender people at all, and that by his statement he only attempted to make the issue a part of mainstream politics," she said.

"We don't hurt anyone by the way we live and who we love. The public must be reminded of this again and again," Králová added.

Other speakers stated that some members of the LGBTQ+ community still do not view their rights as equal to the majority.

Later in the afternoon, a march set out across the historical center of Prague for Jan Palach Square, where the event ended at about 3 p.m.

The 11th annual Prague Pride festival also took place in the Czech capital this week, offering more than 100 events including concerts, exhibitions, queer art presentations, cinema screenings, and picnics through Sunday. The theme of this year's festival was "coming out."