RUSSIA: Police arrest Gay Pride campaigners demonstrating for rights in Moscow ahead of the Eurovision Song contest

Record ID: 277411

  • Title: RUSSIA: Police arrest Gay Pride campaigners demonstrating for rights in Moscow ahead of the Eurovision Song contest
  • Date: 17th May 2009
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (MAY 16, 2009) (REUTERS) GAY ACTIVISTS MARCHING HOLDING BANNER SAYING EQUAL RIGHTS WITHOUT COMPROMISE, POLICE RUNNING UP AND RIPPING BANNER POLICE ARRESTING ACTIVISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH GAY ACTIVIST PETER TATCHELL SAYING: "The more people who come out, who are known to be gay, the easier it is to break down discrimination and stereotypes." POLI
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACBME7A82IU5P0FTPB7U7J2VFU
  • Story Text: Dozens of riot police broke up a gay rights demonstration on Saturday (May 16) before the Eurovision Song Contest final in Moscow, grabbing protesters and throwing them into police cars and a waiting bus.
    Those arrested for taking part in the small demonstration, which had been banned by city authorities, included British and Russian campaigners.
    "The more people who come out who are known to be gay, the easier it is to break down discrimination and stereo types," veteran British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, just minutes before police bundled him away.
    Police pushed waiting reporters away as they arrested the gay and lesbian participants but there were no beatings. Among those detained was Nikolai Alexeyev, a Russian gay rights leader. Alexeyev was walking with a person wearing women's clothes, whom he described as a friend. Police said they were arresting him for walking with a transvestite.
    Manwhile in the centre of Moscow, members of an Orthodox movement gathered to protest against the gay activists. Police stood by and did not interfere as the protesters called homosexuality an act of 'soul terrorism'. They held banners saying 'Gays should sleep on the prison bench, and 'No to soul terror'.
    "We want to firmly stage our protest to say a tough 'no' to this act of soul terrorism, which is Gay Pride. They try to persuade our people to believe in these values, but they are not part of us and our culture, said Michael Nalimov, one of the members.
    Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has taken a hard line against homosexual protesters, once describing a gay rights parade as "satanic".
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