Gay Pride in Moscow: Report from a Chicago Activist
MOSCOW, May 14, 2009 (Gay Liberation Network) – After 14 hours of flights, last night I found myself in Eastern Europe for the first time in my life, warmly greeted by lesbian and gay activists who, despite state repression, are organizing their fourth annual pride event in this city. This year’s event is dubbed ‘Slavic Pride’, denoting the significant participation of activists from around the region.
The previous three years’ events have gone forward despite bans from the authorities and violence from neo-fascists in Russian orthodox and skinhead garb. This year the authorities not only banned the Pride event, but for good measure, approved the anti-gays’ application to hold their own event this past Tuesday.
That same day, our Moscow friends countered with their own unsanctioned action at the Department of Registration of Acts of Civil Status – an attempt by two lesbian activists to get a marriage license.
Leading Slavic Pride activist Nikolai Alekseev said the action was inspired in part by a February civil disobedience action at a marriage license bureau in Chicago. The Moscow action received widespread international press coverage, including from the New York Times.
As I shadowed Alekseev around the city last night, press coverage if anything seemed to build, with Nikolai’s two cell phones ringing incessantly and meetings with Finish and Slovenian journalists held near midnight just outside of Red Square.
Slavic Pride is slated for this Saturday, amidst the big ‘Eurovision Fest’ being hosted this year by Moscow. For those not familiar with what Eurovision is, think American Idol times ten, with a profusion of media coverage and street banners that puts Chicago’s 2016 Olympics bid hype to shame.
While our specific plans for Saturday are necessarily secret at this time, the aim is to cause maximum embarrassment to the government if they attempt to arrest us or allow the neo-fascists to attack.
In response to Moscow activists’ application for a permit this year, police chief Vladmir Pronin told the Russian news agency Interfax that gay pride parades in the capital are “unacceptable – gay pride parades shouldn’t be allowed”.
“No one will dare to do it, such ‘braveheart’ will be torn to shreds,” he added. “The West can say we’re bad guys, but our people will see it is right. Our country is patriarchal, that’s [sic] sums it up… I positively agree with the Church, with the Patriarch, politicians, especially with [Mayor] Luzhkov, who are convinced that man and woman should love each other. It is established by God and nature.”
However, Moscow Pride organizers have vowed to move forward with this year’s Pride event despite the police chief’s threats.
“Mr. Pronin already showed his incompetency last year when his services were unable to prevent us unveiling a banner directed against the Mayor, right opposite his office,” said Alekseev.
The main pride event successfully took place nearby at the monument to the famous Russian gay composer, Peter Tchkaivosky, while the authorities and neo-fascists were hoodwinked in to thinking that it would take place outside of homophobic Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s office.
Today at the start of a gay rights conference at an undisclosed location east of the city, I was joined by British gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell and LGBT activists from around Russia and Belorussia Minsk, Rostof, Sochi, Ufa, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Ekaterinbourg, Volgodonsk, Ryazan and of course Moscow.
As we gathered on a coach to go to the conference, Moscow activist Nikolai Baev explained how a group of young activists from Ryazan, about 200 miles south of the capital, got involved in organizing this year’s Slavic Pride:
“There is a very discriminatory law in the Ryazan region which prohibits so-called propaganda about homosexuality20and among minors. The law passed in 2006 and we had pickets that said that homosexuality is absolutely normal and we are proud of our situation. We picketed in front of schools in Ryazan and we were detained because it was illegal.”
Two people were found guilty and fined 1500 roubles (about $45 US) each. Alekseev came to Ryazan to help in the campaign and in the appeal of their cases to the Constitutional Court of Russia.
Then, Sergey Yenin, 19, explained how he became involved in gay rights organizing in Belorussia :
“I felt myself to be gay from my early childhood, he explained.
“Last year I came to Minsk and there I got acquainted with some gay activists and I thought it would be great if I fought for my gay rights. There are a lot of people who don’t fight for their rights, who don’t participate in such activist movements, and they just consume our achievements.
“For example, we fought for our gay club, our one gay club in Minsk. It was in danger of being closed [by the government], but it still exists, due to us.”
I asked Sergey if he had participated in Minsk Pride events before.
“Yes, of course. The most outstanding Pride parade took place in 2001. But I didn’t participate because I was only 11 then. There were over 300 people participating in this event and 300 watching. This was fabulous This was an historical moment in Belorussia.
“The last one took place in October of 2008. It was named Queer Walk and it took place on the 11th of October 2008, the international day of coming out, and we organized a pride parade. It was a rather private, intimate event, there were fifty participants because we cannot organize such a public event because of our government.
“If we applied for an event, we would be denied.
“There is an action that takes place [each year] called Chernobyl Way, and all of the opposition parties take place there, and our LGBT group participated last year and this year. Last year we raised the rainbow flag and there were a lot of bad comments about it, there were a lot of thre ats [of violence]. There were such political parties as Right Alliance, and they threaten us all of the time. This year we didn’t20raise our rainbow flag because the organizer of the Belorussian National Front, the main opposition party, they coordinated a call to us, do not raise your rainbow flag, not because we have anything against you, because our fight for clean air, free of radiation will turn into a fight for gay rights.”
I asked Sergey why he personally joined the 15 others for the ten hour train ride from Belorussia to join this Saturday’s Slavic Pride: “I [only] made the conclusion [to come] on May 12 because I was really very frightened about myself and my friends. I know that there is some information that Pride is going to be canceled, and more than this, that Pride participants are going to be beaten.
“Because this is my fight really.If I don’t go to the pride parade, who will go there? My reasons to come was to support my friends – and of course to support gay rights.”
SEE ALSO
Tatchell To Attend Moscow Gay Pride. Despite threats to bash and arrest the marchers, British gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell will attend this Saturday’s Moscow Gay Pride parade – this year renamed Slavic Gay Pride to support the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality struggles in all Slavic countries, Russian and non-Russian. (UK Gay News, May 11, 2009)
Gay Marriage Campaign Starts in Russia. Two women will apply for a marriage license in Moscow on May 12, it emerged this afternoon. The announcement was made today during a press conference for Slavic Pride which is planned for later this month in Moscow. (UK Gay News, May 5, 2009)
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Moscow warned to allow gay rights protest – or face Eurovision boycott
But only a few days before this weekend’s grand finale, things have turned ugly, with official homophobia and a boycott threat casting a shadow over the entire event.
lready, one Eurovision contestant has said he will walk out of the competition if violence flares at the proposed demonstration.
“If we get to the final and the demonstration is suppressed by force, I will refuse to get on that stage in Moscow,” Gordon, the singer and songwriter from the Dutch group De Toppers, told Dutch television. “If my kind of people are discriminated against in any way, then there is no reason for me to be here; I’ll be on the first plane home.”
Prominent British gay activist Peter Tatchell, who was assaulted and arrested at the demonstration in 2007, has added his weight to the campaign by announcing that he will attend Saturday’s march, despite a ban on him travelling to Russia.
“I am joining the parade to show my support for the courageous Russian gay campaigners,” said Mr Tatchell, who is the human rights spokesperson for the Green Party.
“All year round they risk arrest, imprisonment and queer-bashing attacks. These men and women are absolute heroes. I salute them.” See
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Openly gay soldier Dan Choi dismissed from National Guard under DADT
Lieutenant Dan Choi, the National Guard soldier who publicly came out live on national television, has been dismissed from duty.
He was dismissed for “homosexual conduct”.
Choi is a campaigner for the repeal of the military gay ban and a founding member of the Knights Out group.
He came out live on US television on the Rachel Maddow Show, where he will reappear tonight to discuss his dismissal.
In a preview of the show, Maddow reads a letter received by Choi from the Army National Guard.
It states: “This is to inform you that sufficient basis exists to initiate action for withdrawal of Federal Recognition in the Army National Guard for moral or professional dereliction.
“Specifically you admitted publicly that you are a homosexual, which constitutes homosexual conduct. Your actions negatively affected the good order and discipline of the New York Army National Guard.” See Openly gay soldier Dan Choi dismissed from National Guard under …
PinkNews.co.uk* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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British PM Gordon Brown On Attacking Prop 8: “Unacceptable”
Gordon Brown has condemned California’s ban on gay marriage as “unacceptable” and warned people to be vigilant against all forms of discrimination.
The prime minister said the ban, backed in a referendum in the US state in November, would “undo” much of recent progress made in tackling prejudice.
California became the 28th US state to prohibit gay marriage, overturning an earlier court ruling legalising it.
Same-sex civil partnerships became law in the UK in 2005.
‘Fighting homophobia’
Civil partnerships gave gay partners the same tax and inheritance rights as heterosexual married couples.
Mr Brown made the comments at a reception in Downing Street for leading figures from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Nearly 20,000 gay couples have married in California since same-sex unions were legalised in May and the state authorities have said these will remain valid.
The referendum, which gained 52% support, called for the state’s constitution to be amended to include the stipulation that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognised”.
Mr Brown said “this attempt to undo good that has been done is unacceptable”.
He added: “This shows why we have always got to be vigilant, always got to fight homophobic behaviour and any form of discrimination.”
He also praised equality campaigners in the UK for “changing opinion” about same-sex unions.
“You have shown how the legislative process, by your pressure, can respond,” he said.
See Gordon Brown On Attacking Prop 8: “Unacceptable”
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/british-pm-go…
Gay Iraqi could face death penalty if deportation goes ahead
A gay Iraqi man due for deportation tomorrow has been told by the UK Border Agency to conduct his relationships “in private” on his return to Iraq, where homosexuality is punishable by death.
Campaign group Iraqi LGBT says the asylum seeker will become the seventh gay Iraqi to be returned to the country by the UK, despite the country being one of only nine in the world where homosexual people are executed.
Though a ruling was made in September 2007 allowing two gay Iraqis to remain in the UK, campaigners working on behalf of the man facing deportation tomorrow say his case was held too long ago to benefit from the change in case law achieved in 2007.
Keith Best, the director of the Immigration Advisory Service, told the Guardian that the government ought to give the asylum seeker a fresh hearing.
The United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) has said that the man’s homosexuality did not form the basis of his original asylum application in 2001 and that his subsequent conviction for seeking to stay in the country illegally makes him an untrustworthy defendant, undermining his claim to be gay. See Gay Iraqi could face death penalty if deportation goes ahead
American Chronicle, CA
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Prince Harry has homophobia licked: gay rights campaigner
Prince Harry, under fire over alleged racism, received rare praise from a leading gay rights campaigner Wednesday who said he was “liberated and enlightened” for kissing and licking a male friend.
Harry, a serving army officer, was widely criticised earlier this week after footage emerged of him describing a colleague as a “Paki” in 2006.
The video, obtained by the News of the World tabloid, also includes images of Harry on a night out with friends in which he mouths to one soldier: “I love you” before kissing him on the cheek and licking his face.
Another extract shows Harry asking a colleague how he felt after an army exercise, adding: “Gay, queer on the side?”
But Peter Tatchell, an Australian-born human rights activist who made his name focusing on gay rights, said he had no problem with Harry’s use of the word “queer” and praised his show of affection.
“For him to happily give his soldier friend a public kiss and lick his face strikes me as rather liberated and enlightened, for a straight man,” he said.
“If only more heterosexual men were relaxed about same-sex affection like Harry, the world would be a better place.”
Tatchell added: “The context and intention of words is crucial in deciding whether they are offensive or not. I don’t find anything objectionable about the context in which Harry used the word queer.”
See Prince Harry has homophobia licked: gay rights campaigner
AFP
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Students mourn gay rights campaigner
Students mourn gay rights campaigner
