100% of moscovites opposed to Gay Pride

[david uk]

I heard a feature on the BBC World service which said that close to 100% of the population of Moscow is in favour of the ban on the Gay Pride March there next month. The march has been banned but they say they will go ahead regardless. Apparently the Russian gay community is divided as to whether they should do so- some people feel it would merely play into the hands of the extreme homophobes. In any case, Russian gay clubs have been empty recently amid fears of homophobic attacks.

I remember Marc Almond saying how a concert of his was broadcast on live tv about 10 years ago in Russia. In the middle of the show a young Russian guy walked up to him, kissed him and presented him with a bunch of roses. Marc stopped the show and made an impromptu speech about how Russian gay people had been instrumental in the development of the nation's culture.

that must have been quite a moment.

let's send rudie strength to our Russian brothers and sisters

xxx

[Dee]

I saw a news story on TV this morning about it. Infuriating, to say the least!


Moscow's First Gay Pride Parade Disrupted by Police and Hecklers

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, May 28, 2006; A16

MOSCOW, May 27 -- Riot police broke up an attempt by gays and lesbians to stage Moscow's first gay pride parade Saturday. Gay activists who attempted to lay flowers near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin wall and then assemble across from city hall were heckled and assaulted by skinheads, Orthodox Christians and radical nationalists.

Police said they had arrested about 120 people, both supporters and opponents of the parade. Gay activists were dragged away by riot police when they began speaking to reporters, but opponents of the parade, including a nationalist member of parliament, were allowed to speak and chant, "Moscow is not Sodom."

Several international activists and politicians traveled to Moscow in a show of support for Moscow's gays and lesbians. Volker Beck, a member of the German Parliament from the Green Party, marched with the group and was struck in the face by skinheads outside city hall. He was briefly detained after the incident. A Canadian journalist was also assaulted by opponents of the parade, who threw smoke bombs and eggs before police moved in to disperse them.

"Lesbians and gays have to cope with major problems in Russia," Beck said at a news conference earlier in the day. "There is a massive threat of violence, and it is also frightening that there is no clear support from the state for the rights of lesbian and gay citizens. On the contrary, the mayor of Moscow deprives people who advocate tolerance and equal rights of the freedom to demonstrate."

The city had banned the parade on the grounds that it was anathema to the values of most residents and therefore presented a threat of violence. A city court upheld the ban Friday.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said in a radio interview Friday that a gay parade "may be acceptable for some kind of progressive, in some sense, countries in the West, but it is absolutely unacceptable for Moscow, for Russia."

He added: "As long as I am mayor, we will not permit these parades to be conducted."

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but the gay community in Moscow remains largely underground. Some gay activists had objected to the parade, which was the culmination of a gay pride festival, saying it was likely to provoke a backlash that could damage efforts to build tolerance.

<snip>

Police also stood by as skinheads crowded around Beck and Scott Long of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, who had unfurled a rainbow flag.

"The police were encouraging the skinheads," Long said. "It was disturbing but not surprising. Luzhkov spent months encouraging violence by his public homophobia."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/27/AR2006052701002.html

[david uk]

such a crying shame that this should happen in a country that has given so much to the world in terms of culture... heck, even Tchaikovsky was gay!

[hoops]

sure it's a shame! it's a shame that any country or culture acts so childishly towards gays, blacks , americans, iraqis, canadians, jews, brits, the list goes on and on. Remember the mathew shepard incident? remember the KKK? remember the US during the first half of the second world war? it's sickening but certainly shouldn't be unexpected. it should be stopped, but not unexpected. i don't expect the worst from man/woman kind but i don't not expect it either. I guess that is part of the reason i always say
peace
hoops

[Eva]

I have two Russian friends. They told me lesbians and gays get beaten up by their own family sometimes. :(

Eva

[Bryan]

As discouraging as that all is, at least the parade (attemepted parade) is progress, a beginning.

[Dee]

No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love.
(Rita Mae Brown)

Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?
(Ernest Gaines)

"The city had banned the parade on the grounds that it was anathema to the values of most residents ...."

Values which are what, exactly? :confused: Oppression, and violence to back it up?

[david uk]

[QUOTE=Dee]
No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love.
(Rita Mae Brown)

Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?
(Ernest Gaines)

These quotes will make perfect sense to everyone here on Janis's message board- why is this not common sense to everyone on the planet?????

[Dee]

You want answers that I can't give
You want words I don't know (Janis Ian)

It's like a Zen riddle, perhaps. :confused:

[ponytail]

This is one instance where I feel lucky to be American, because I know most American citizens have no problem with gay people. If only our officials would catch up to the public. Sadly, the small percentage of folks who still hate us can be easily organized to influence electoral outcomes.

As a central Pennsylvanian, I used to feel a lot of empathy for the Amish -- being different, being blatantly gawked at and photographed by tourists, etc. Then I saw how, though they're pacifists, they were organized to come out in record numbers and vote for Bush because of his homophobia. Now I wonder if they might not fit in better in Russia....