Prague Pride is “more important than Christmas” for Czech transgender activist Lenka Králová
For Lenka Králová, a transgender woman, podcaster, and activist, Prague Pride is the most important event of the year. She says the annual parade and week‑long festival show that “there is nothing to be afraid of” when it comes to LGBT+ visibility. In an interview with RPI, she shares why she believes Pride still matters and what visitors can expect this year.
For many in Czechia’s LGBTQ+ community, Prague Pride has become a key moment of visibility, celebration, and solidarity. But for transgender activist, podcaster, and writer Lenka Králová, the festival holds deeply personal significance.
“For me personally, it is the most important event of the year. For me, it's even more important than Christmas,” she says with a smile.
Králová didn’t always feel this way. For decades, she kept her distance from Pride events. “I lived for 38 years as a heterosexual guy, and I didn’t care, and I didn’t go to any pride parades or anything,” she recalls. “I had this picture in my head that it's obscene in some way, that it's too extravagant, and that it's simply not for me.”
That changed during the early stages of her gender transition, when a friend convinced her to join. “She said, oh, you have to go, and you have to go with me,” Králová remembers. “So I went, and I was really surprised because it was everything but this idea that I had in my head.”
Instead of the caricature she had imagined, she found “thousands and thousands of happy people just celebrating, having fun.” The atmosphere, she says, was family‑friendly. “I didn’t see anything that would be inappropriate for children. Well, maybe there were like few people in some inappropriate costumes, but there were like maybe five or seven in the whole parade.”
For her, the most frustrating part is how media coverage often fixates on those few attention‑grabbing outfits. “These are the people that then end up in the front pages of the magazines,” she says. “So I'm a little bit upset on the media for the way they were reporting about the parade, because it's just a joyful, beautiful march of happy people showing their pride.”
In recent years, Prague Pride has attracted about 60,000 participants annually. Králová believes the numbers speak for themselves: “I think it just shows the support, and it shows that there is nothing to be afraid of.”
From 10,000 to 60,000 — and barely any protests
Králová first marched in 2020, although the following year was cancelled due to the pandemic. “The first time I went, there were 10,000 people. And then the other times there were 60,000 people,” she says. Opposition has been minimal: “The resistance was so small that the police was able to totally separate them from the rest of the people. So when these thousands of people are marching through the streets of Prague towards Letná, you only see like maybe half a dozen, maybe a dozen of some protesters on the way. And that's it. There is basically no opposition, there is no blockage, nothing.”
A week‑long celebration of diversity
While the parade is the highlight, Prague Pride is much more than a single march. “Of course, the march, the parade as such is the highlight and is the biggest event of them all. And that's what I'm looking forward to the most,” Králová says. “But there are over 150 events. There are exhibitions, there are discussions, there are concerts. So there are lots of things in the program that catched my eye.”
One event she’s especially excited about is a discussion with acclaimed Czech singer Aneta Langerová. “There'll be concerts basically every day in the Střelecký Ostrov, in the center of Prague,” she adds.
Why Pride still matters in Czechia
Although Czech society often sees itself as tolerant, Králová says there’s still work to do. “First of all, the fact that we need such events already says something about the society. Czech society or let's say Czech general public has an opinion about themselves that we are a very tolerant country. But in fact, it's not that bright as it might seem at the first sight.”
She points to a telling statistic: “Still, almost half of the gay people are afraid to hold their partner hand by hand in public. So that already says something.”
Advice for visitors
For those in Prague this week, Králová encourages checking the festival’s official website. “Please go and check Prague Pride Festival website. It has an English section,” she says. “There are several events that are in English or there are concerts, music concerts where you don't need to speak the language. So I'm sure you'll find something. But there are several events that are either translated or that are in English.”
For Králová, Pride has become a vital celebration of community, resilience, and joy. And for anyone curious, she has one message: join in and see it for yourself.
