Moscow Gay Pride Launched--Heading into Bloody Battle

Fifth attempt to challenge Mayor's Pride ban in central Moscow this Saturday 29 May

Posted by Richard Ammon
GllobalGayz.com

Moscow
27 May 2010

The fifth attempt to hold a Moscow Pride parade was launched today in the Grand Ballroom at the Lesnaya Holiday Inn hotel in Moscow.

Nikolai Alekseev, the Moscow Pride organizer (photo right), announced at the press conference:

"The courts today rejected our appeal against the banning of three Gay Pride rallies. We asked to hold these rallies in central Moscow this Saturday 29 May. Now we go to court on Friday in a bid to overturn the Mayor's ban on holding a Gay Pride march through Moscow on Saturday," he said.

Organizers are not hopeful that the ban will be revoked.

"The Mayor's reputation and authority is at stake. He has refused us for the last five years, ever since our first attempted gay parade in 2006. I hope he will change his mind but I doubt it. Mayor Luzhkov is not a great lover of democracy, human rights or gay people. Whatever the courts decide, the right to protest is guaranteed under the Russian constitution and we intend to exercise our rights," added Mr Alekseev.

Today's Moscow Pride launch and press conference was attended by international delegates and speakers, who were there to support the Russian gay activists, including Volker Beck, the German Green MP; Louis-Georges Tin, founder of the International Day Against Homophobia and President of the IDAHO Committee; Andy Thayer, the US gays rights activist; and Peter Tatchell, coordinator of the British gay human rights group OutRage! and human rights spokesperson for the Green Party of England and Wales.

Mr Tatchell told the press conference:
"The ban on Moscow Pride is illegal and Mayor Luzhkov is a criminal for banning it. He should be put on trial for violating the Russian constitution. The real criminals are not the organizers of Moscow Pride, but the mayor of Moscow and the judges who uphold this illegal ban.

"President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin are colluding with this ban by failing to order it to be overturned. I call on the Russian President and Prime Minister to show leadership by publicly condemning the ban and by calling on the mayor of Moscow to lift it. They should ensure freedom of expression and the right to protest to all the citizens of Moscow and Russia, gay and straight.

"We are here to defend the human rights of all Russian people. Many different rights have been violated by the authorities. It is not just gay people whose freedoms are being trampled on.

"Russia is a great nation with a proud and great history. Many important figures in Russian history have been gay or bisexual, including Sergei Eisenstein, Peter Tchaikovsky, Rudolph Nureyev, Sergei Diaghilev, Modest Musssorgsky and Nikolai Gogol. The gay contribution to Russian history deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated, with pride," said Mr Tatchell.

Further information:
Peter Tatchell in Moscow - +7 903 539 5179
Nikolai Alekseev in Moscow - +7 916 255 8240

Gay Pride in Russia

Richard Ammon

GlobalGayz

April 27, 2010

Letter from Russia.

Gay Russia is surprisingly alive or dead according to the view you have from being there.

Dense homophobia pervades the culture. A visitor will not find a public scene. No flags, no parades, no store-front centers or offices, one magazine, a couple of on-line gay sites that list a few venues, one in-the-streets activist organization that tries to mount a gay Pride event each June that's overrun with skinheads and police.

Or, a visitor can point to the vibrant gay night life in Moscow and St Petersburg--a dozen bars, discos, saunas in the two cities. Passport gay travel magazine recently described St Petersburg's biggest gay club, Central Station, as " a veritable maze on four levels connected by several stairways, a half-dozen bars, two stages, a sushi restaurant, comfortable nooks to chat in, and a dance floor. On weekends the club is packed with over 1,000 people. On Thursday nights about 100–150 gals show up for Lesbian Night."

In Moscow, the popular Propaganda bar-disco gets mixed reviews: "Propaganda is really good on Thursdays and really crappy on Fridays and Saturdays. The gay party on Sunday is excellent (not for girls, though). The food at Propaganda is very good and cheap." Or: "people who say that it is a cool place are definitely not from Moscow."

From either perspective, the LGBT scene in Russia is very limited. How could it be otherwise?

This vast country spans eleven time zones stretches more than ten thousand kilometers (6300 miles) from Western Europe to far eastern Vladivostok. There are a mere 142 million people living in 17,075,400 sq km (6,592,800 sq mi) of territory. That makes the population density about 21 people per sq mi! And how do you organize a party in a population where 90% of people do not own a computer!?

The answer is not easy. Nor is the LGBT effort currently under way by a tiny group of LGBT Russians who are trying to carry the modern banner of human rights and equality to the government and people of Moscow and St Petersburg. For the past four years, the gay rights organization GayRussia.ru--led by Nikolai Alekseev--have attempted gay Pride demonstrations at public locations. None of thee had official city approval even though Russian citizens have the right to assemble--with permission. Mayor Luzhkov has refused that permission four times in four years. It would seem the LGBT public efforts were stalled.

But instead of cowering n fear, as they did in communist times, GayRussia.ru has 'fought' back by staging rallies despite the ban. The results are a bit of blood, bruises, arrests and court appearances. And they plan another event this year in June 2010.

This is the new tactic in homophobic countries that are outgrowing their socialist heritages: Baltics, Balkans, Eastern Europe (and Turkey).

Russian activists are taking the middle way. The results will likely succeed since successful membership in the European Union demands respect for human rights for all and non-discrimination toward minorities. Such humane laws will not go backward and GayRussia.ru will succeed over time.

(This is NOT the tactic in extremely homophobic cultures that are deeply entrenched in Muslim heritages. Here the risk is death, not just a street tussle. There, GayRussia.ru members would be assassinated by death squads. So they don't go there. No gay rights activist go there and only work online to help individual sneak out of the toxic countries.)

Support gay Pride Russia in June 2010.