Where was Prague’s Pride?

It turns out my first week in Prague coincided with Prague Pride, and had it not been for an email from my university, I would not have realised it was happening at all. The parade itself was actually the largest ever, sixty thousand people turning out, but Pride’s profile in wider society was low-key. In London, there is genuine concern over corporate “rainbow washing”, in Prague I didn’t see a single flag, not even in the same British multinationals such as Tesco or M&S. Why? From the outside the Czech Republic had always seemed to be exceptionally tolerant towards the LGBT community, I had read it was the post-communist country to escape the “rainbow curtain”. Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1962, before most Western European countries, the age of consent was equalised in 1990, the same year that homosexual prostitution was decriminalised, and in 2006, despite the use of President Vaclav Klaus’ veto, same-sex registered partnerships were introduced. Most importantly, an often-cited <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-homosexuality/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">2013 Pew Research Study</a> found that 80% of Czech people believed that society should accept homosexuality, with only 16% believing that society should not, the 4th highest of all countries surveyed. So why was there so little wider enthusiasm for Pride? <a href="https://medium.com/@yjmsnwa/where-was-pragues-pride-2b55919d4d3e">Click Here</a>