RUSSIA: Police and protesters break up Moscow gay parade after Gay rights activists attempt to march through Moscow despite official ban

Record ID: 278066

  • Title: RUSSIA: Police and protesters break up Moscow gay parade after Gay rights activists attempt to march through Moscow despite official ban
  • Date: 27th May 2006
  • Summary: (BN10) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (MAY 27, 2006) (REUTERS) GAY ACTIVISTS ATTEMPTING TO LAY FLOWERS AT THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER POLICEMEN PREVENTING ACTIVISTS FROM APPROACHING THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER TOMB ANTI-GAY PROTESTERS WIDE OF RIOT POLICE RUNNING AFTER SKINHEADS AND OTHER ANTI-GAY PROTESTERS POLICE CHASING AND DETAINING ANTI-GAYS PROTESTERS
  • Embargoed: 11th June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC6T379VVF7GO8UR5TUU7V2D0V
  • Story Text: Russian police, militant Orthodox Christians and neo-fascists broke up a first ever gay rights march in Moscow on Saturday (May 27), but the homosexuals claimed their short-lived protest as a "great victory".
    Activists led by 28-year-old Nikolai Alexeyev had planned to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -- a symbol of the World War Two struggle against fascism, and one of Russia's most sacred places.
    But police closed the gates to the park where the eternal flame burns under the Kremlin walls, and a heavy scrum of women singing hymns and shaven-headed nationalists tried to charge into the gay activists as the march arrived.
    Alexeyev called it a great victory as he was dragged, bent almost double, away from the gates by two policemen.
    City authorities had banned the march, which they called an "outrage to society", while religious leaders from all major faiths condemned it. Interfax news agency reported police had detained around 100 people after the clashes.
    Even some rival gay activists said the march risked inflaming Russia's widespread intolerance of homosexuality, and wished Alexeyev had chosen a less direct way to protest against discrimination and homophobia.
    Homosexuality was only decriminalised in Russia in 1993 and, although some gay clubs exist in big cities, same-sex couples almost never make a public display of their affections.
    The marchers, who seemed to number about 40 although an exact count was impossible in the mob, were outnumbered at least twofold by men and women carrying Russian Orthodox icons and chanting "Moscow is not Sodom".
    Leonid Nixnich, Chairman of the Union of Orthodox Citizens, was there to protest against the parade.
    "We live in a Russian orthodox country and no gay parades would ever take place in Moscow. We will be protesting against them constantly and we fight against them."
    Alexeyev had invited gay activists from all across Europe to the march, the culmination of three days of events that were a first Russian attempt to hold a Gay Pride festival like those in Western cities.
    Later, when police had formed a line between the two sides, a group of skinheads -- young Russian nationalists who have grown in number in recent years and have been behind a series of attacks on foreign students -- rushed towards the gay activists.
    Their faces masked, they threw flares as they ran, but OMON riot police stopped them and dragged them to waiting buses.
    The march, a first Russian attempt to hold a Gay Pride festival like those in Western cities, was the culmination of a series of gay-themed events to which Alexeyev invited gay activists from all across Europe.

    CIVIL RIGHTS RIOTS
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