Baltic Pride: Pro-LGBT Politicians Threatened, Pelted With Eggs

Politicians were pelted with eggs and police arrested the antigay protesters who harassed participants of the second-ever Baltic Pride parade today.

Once again, a tremendous police presence guarded LGBT supporters in Lithuania -- including via helicopter and horseback -- from the threats of neo-Nazis and other fundamentalists. The Associated Press reports one police officer was injured.

Sweden's European Union Affairs Minister, Birgitta Ohlsson, was one of those hit with eggs while standing at the front of the Baltic Pride parade. She told Sweden's The Local that a few hit her in the head. She gave a speech from a stage that the Associated Press reports was stormed by 50 protesters that police stopped.

"The Europe that we represent here has a history of reason, of equality, of tolerance," said Ohlsson from that stage, according to video of the event. "That's why I would like to urge all European politicians, from the left to the right, to get out of our closet and to really defend LGBT rights as the true human rights that they are."

The Lithuania Tribune reports that Pride marchers planned to wear buttons with slogans such as "See What You Haven't Seen Before" and "Don't Stand Behind the Fence," a reference to being kept safe behind a tall fence erected by police during the first Pride celebration in 2010.

Watch video from the event below.