The first edition of Pride Leiden attracts 25,000 visitors

About 25,000 people participated in the first official edition of Pride Leiden on Saturday, the municipality announced. Due to the announced protests, an emergency decree was in effect around a library in the Leiden city center for a short time on Saturday morning. However, according to the municipality, there were no disturbances there.

https://twitter.com/BintheNL/status/1697981253574697316

Because of Pride, drag queen Dina Diamond from Leiden came to the library in Nieuwstraat on Saturday morning to read to children. As the municipality feared that public order could be seriously disturbed, the new mayor Peter van der Velden issued an emergency decree.

Hoe mooi is het om je kind te laten zien hoe kleurrijk Nederland is? Dat je mag ontdekken wie je bent, en zijn wie je bent? Laten we daarom niet te veel aandacht geven aan paar spandoeken, maar vooral aan het voorleesuurtje bij de bibliotheek. #pride #Leiden

Foto: Leids Dagblad https://t.co/30qg7XnsWH pic.twitter.com/ZfowgJHGW6

— Linda Beimer (@LindaBeimer) September 2, 2023

In the end, just over 10 people demonstrated against the drag queen's reading session, including Forum for Democracy MP Gideon van Meijeren. A little further away, more than a hundred people went against this demonstration, the municipality spokeswoman claimed. According to her, there were no incidents and the reading hour ended "in a good atmosphere".

The police said that there had been no arrests in connection with the activities at the library. However, on Saturday afternoon, two people were arrested in the city center for insulting a police officer and assaulting another police officer, a spokesperson said. In the afternoon, a boat parade took place on the canals of Leiden, which was "joyful and exuberant," the municipality reported.

Pride Leiden ended on Saturday night with a party, which according to the municipality was the first Pride event in the Zuid-Holland town. However, two years ago there was a protest march by the Leiden queer community and in 1983 Pink Saturday was held in Leiden.