Bulgaria's 3rd annual gay parade “Sofia Pride” went without violent incidents largely thanks to the decisive actions of the 300 riot police officers guarding the rally.

Some 700 people – about as many as the organizers had expected – participated in the procession which started at the National Palace of Culture and proceeded down the Vasil Levski Blvd to the Monument of the Soviet Army where the participants watched a concert dedicated to the initiative.

The parade under the motto "Love equality, embrace diversity" was led by an open-platform truck with a sound system and several people dancing on it. It started at about 5 pm.

The participants in the parade included gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight, and featured guests from the UK, Germany, Russia, France, and Greece, including UK Labor MEP Michael Cashman and a heterosexual man from the Netherlands who came specially to support gay rights in Bulgaria. The Chair of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee Krasimir Kanev also joined the procession.

After earlier on Sunday, some 100 nationalist and far-right youth gathered for an anti-gay parade rally with slogans such as “Gays want death for Bulgarians”, “Homosexuals out of Bulgaria, to keep our children pure”, “Bulgaria is a place for normal people – gays should go to jail” and “All the gays, go to Uganda”, there were several provocation attempts during the Sofia Pride parade itself but those foiled by the riot police.

The precise route of the Sofia Pride gay parade was kept in secret until the very last minute. The organizers of the event published on their website recommendations to the participants how to avoid being attacked before and after the procession, including by moving in larger groups and by not displaying any posters or flags of the gay movement when they are not in the procession guarded by police.

The starting point of the parade was fenced off and the participants were admitted by the police through a single checkpoint only upon showing a green bracelet provided in advance by the organizers.

More than 300 riot police officers watched closely the actual gay parade and prevented several far-right extremists from assaulting the participants although the former did hurl verbal abuse.

Three young men were arrested for attempting provocations but the rally went without any major incidents.

The first ever gay pride parade in Bulgaria took place in June 2008 when it attracted only about 100 participants. Those were assaulted by far-right youth hurling Molotov cocktails at them, with the police arresting several dozen extremists.

The 2009 parade went without any incidents and attracted some 300 participants. It was marked by an increasingly fierce opposition on part of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

The 2010 Sofia gay parade was also opposed by the church and a myriad of nationalist organizations but for the first time civic NGOs claiming to promote family values also joined in rather vocally to denounce the initiative.

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