The March for Marital Equality was organised by the lesbian group Kontra and the Iskorak centre for the rights of sexual and gender minorities to draw attention to violations of the human rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual persons, or people living in same-sex unions, Kontra coordinator Sanja Juras said.

Juras said that in the past few weeks there had been a mass-scale mobilisation of citizens against the rights of same-sex families. "We consider this totally unacceptable, and because the basic human right of family protection has not been ensured for same-sex families, we have organised this rally," she said.

"We ask the government to take concrete steps to protect the right of same-sex couples to family by allowing them the right to marriage and a de facto relationship," Jurak said.

The demonstrators, mostly young people and several older advocates of gay rights, were protected by several dozen police officers. They were expected to head to the government offices in St Mark's Square to voice their demands.

The march was supported by the Croatian People's Party (HNS), a junior partner in the ruling coalition led by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which said in a statement that "everyone has a right to express their opinion as long as they don't encroach upon the rights of others."