With many countries in the Northern Hemisphere approaching Gay Pride season and some people in the most liberated parts of the worlds wondering if their city’s parade is little more than a supersized party and corporately-branded event, it’s worth remembering that not all gay communities have it so easy and many Gay Pride marches around the word are victim to violent counter-protests, forced cancellation, extreme hostility and police harassment.

Take Moldova, for instance. This Eastern European country was finally allowed to stage a (very modest) Gay Pride event this year after years of political and mob suppression, but only this week an anti-discrimination rally in the country’s capital was prevented from taking place after political pressure.

And Bob Christie, a gay filmmaker who’s made a documentary on the subject, reported yesterday that Lithuania is trying to put the skids on any such event.

Bob’s film, Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride, has taken him all over the world on a quest to record and unite some of the individual struggles taking place and remind us that there is still a lot to march for.

Leaving the comfort of Vancouver behind, Bob has travelled with reps from his home city’s Pride Society to Moscow and witnessed the anti-gay violence first hand, as well as Sri Lanka, where the identities of participants are closely guarded for their own safety. This is in stark contrast to the Sao Paulo Pride Parade where Bob and his crew take part, along with 4 million others, in the world’s biggest gay pride event.

Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride is showing at this month’s Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (20-30 May).