While Russians were furtively showing their pride in Moscow, activists in Riga were facing very vocal anti-gay activists. And Amnesty International was there to film all the homo action.

Official reports estimate that about 300 pro-gay folk were outnumbered by about 400 right wing loonies, who were held off by security forces.

As the anti-gay activists were screaming their heads off, Latvia president Valdis Zatlers was taking a stand for the nation's same-sex lovers:

I think that the main thing for people is not only to stop being intolerant, but also to understand others. One thing of which I am certainly proud, and of which I am proud whenever I meet with foreigners, is that ours is a democratic country. We have a truly free country in which every citizen has the right to express himself, and that opportunity is respected. I think that these are values from which we must not retreat.

Zatlers' remarks put him in direct conflict with Catholic Cardinal Jânis Pujâts, who last week penned a letter demanding the government cancel the gay pride march. Obviously Pujâts doesn't have as much power as he imagined.