Defying an official ban and threats of violence, gay and lesbian activists
attempted to hold Russia's first gay pride march in Moscow on Saturday, but
were thwarted by police and neo-fascist protesters shouting "Moscow is not
Sodom!"
Police arrested about 120 people, and several gay activists were injured
in attacks by religious and xenophobic extremists.
The key organizer of the event, 28-year-old Nikolai Alexeyev, was pulled
away by police only moments after the short-lived march began. "This is a great
victory, an absolute victory -- look at what's happening," Alexeyev shouted
as two police officers dragged him onto a waiting bus.
City authorities had banned the march, which they called an "outrage to
society," while religious leaders from all of Russia's major faiths condemned
it. It provoked a debate within the gay community over whether the
demonstration risked inflaming already widespread homophobia in Russia.
But supporters had insisted it was necessary.
"We can't keep living in the shadows," Alexeyev said in an interview
before the rally began. "We deserve the same rights to freedom of speech and
freedom of assembly as anyone else."
Organizers had urged gay-rights supporters to lay flowers at the Tomb of
the Unknown Soldier, just outside the Kremlin wall, before marching to a square
opposite Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's office. But when they arrived, they found
that authorities had closed the entrance to the park where the tomb is located,
and hundreds of riot police blocked their path.
More than 100 anti-gay protesters -- including skinheads, Russian
nationalists and Orthodox Christian fundamentalists -- had gathered. Women
wearing head scarves chanted hymns and held up religious icons, while men in
traditional cossack tunics and sheepskin hats shouted at participants.
As police pushed the crowd away from the Kremlin, gangs of skinheads
attacked a number of gay activists, kicking and beating them. "We're here to
defend the dignity of Russia, to protect our country from perverts and
pederasts," said 26-year-old Nikolai Grigoriev.
Shortly before the main rally was to begin, dozens of anti-march youths
raced toward the site, throwing flares and setting off smoke bombs. Police made
little attempt to clear the square, and the crowd grew. The few gay-rights
supporters who attempted to enter the square were arrested by police or beaten
by protesters.
While giving an interview to television cameras, a Green Party member of
Germany's Bundestag, Volker Beck, was attacked by about 20 youths who beat him
in the head. A gang of youths also beat and kicked a Chronicle correspondent
attempting to interview one of the participants.
Supporters of the march said the government's refusal to sanction the
event had sent a clear signal to police and extremists.
"It was shocking and disturbing. What I saw was a complete failure of
police protection that was directly linked to the mayor's banning of the
march," said gay-rights activist John Fisher, co-director of the ARC
International gay lobby group in Geneva.
By banning the march, authorities gave "free rein to those who would
perpetrate acts of violence," Fisher said. "We can only hope that what we saw
was representative of only a small segment of society."
Organizers had timed the event to coincide with the 13th anniversary of
the decriminalization of homosexuality in Russia. Despite growing tolerance for
homosexuals since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia remains a
deeply homophobic society. In one poll last year, 73 percent of Russians
opposed same-sex marriages, and 43 percent said gay men should be incarcerated.
©2006 San Francisco Chronicle
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