ODESA - Organizers of the festival of queer culture "OdesaPride2016" have filed an application to the Odesa City Council for holding a human rights street procession, the press service of the festival has announced.
“OdesaPride2016″ will be held for the second time in Odesa from August 10 to August 14. The motto of the festival this year is ‘Odesa Pride for a Free City!’’ Organizers of the event expect the event to facilitate a new level a dialogue with Odesans on human rights and countering discrimination against vulnerable groups of society,” the statement says.
Organizers of the festival say the city council last year filed a lawsuit to ban holding activities during the festival. The court ruling prohibited holding street mass actions, but festival activists held solitary protest pickets, anyway.
“Taking into consideration the negative experience of the last year and the successful experience of the Kyiv Pride, we openly declare our intention to obtain permission to conduct a human rights street procession. We have already filed the corresponding application to the Odesa City Council,” head of the festival organizing committee Hanna Leonova said.
The Odesa City Council told Interfax-Ukraine that they have not yet received an application form from the organizers of the festival for hosting the event.
