Holy Fucking Shit!: Russia Snubs Council of Europe, Declares “LGBT’s Are Not Discriminated Against In Russia” »

Russia has refused to sign a declaration issued at the 9th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers which included an article against discrimination of LGBT youth.

On the night before the conference, Russia’s minister of education , Dmitry Livanov, stated ‘we need to find new forms to enhance…

Reykjavik Mayor Dons Dress, Balaclava to Support Pussy Riot

13 August 2012

The Moscow Times

Reykjavik Mayor Jon Gnarr atop a van decorated with the words “Free Pussy Riot” during the city’s yearly gay-pride festival.

Reykjavik Mayor Jon Gnarr rode through the streets of the Icelandic capital in a bright pink dress and matching balaclava to add his voice to calls to free three Pussy Riot rockers facing seven years in a Russian jail for an anti-government performance.

In a brief video posted on YouTube, Gnarr is seen waving his arms atop a van decorated with the words “Free Pussy Riot.” One of the group’s songs, “Clear the Cobblestones,” a likely reference to Red Square, can be heard playing from speakers mounted on the van.

Gnarr, formerly an actor and comedian, made the gesture Saturday during Rekyavik’s yearly gay-pride festival, which ran Aug. 7 to 12.

The Reykjavik mayor’s colorful protest came the same day as Icelandic musician Bjork published a statement expressing sympathy for Pussy Riot on her site, saying she understood the defendants “as a musician and a mother.”

In the statement, Bjork invited the three band members — who could be sentenced Aug. 17 at Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court — to join her on stage to perform a song calling for greater justice.

Russian authorities’ attempts to prosecute Pussy Riot rockers for a song criticizing President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral have drawn a stinging response from Russian cultural figures, international rights activists and politicians.

Video clip:

http://youtu.be/96XP_QbU580

I’ve Only Just Begun - the short music film (by 0301489)

“I’ve Only Just Begun” is a ragingly beautiful and empowering story about Venuz Vulgar and his friends on their way to St. Petersburg, Russia.

It’s written and directed by E. Over 60 people were involved in this free, independent production. Thank you all. Big up. No fear.

73 people prosecuted in St Petersburg in first four months under ‘gay propaganda’ ban

St Petersburg Police have revealed that 73 people have been prosecuted for ‘homosexual propaganda’ since the city introduced its ban, just days after eight were arrested trying to hold a gay pride march in the city

21 July 2012| By Andrew Potts

73 people have been prosecuted for violating St Petersburg’s so called ‘homosexual propaganda’ ban in the first four months that the legislation has been in place, St Petersburg police revealed on Friday.

‘73 people have been prosecuted for homosexual propaganda and one person for paedophile propaganda,’ St Petersburg Police Chief Sergei Umnov said on Friday in a statement released by St Petersburg Police.

The law was promoted by the ruling United Russia party and adopted by St Petersburg’s city assembly in February following the introduction of similar laws in the Russian administrative regions of Ryazan and Arkhangelsk in 2006 and 2011.

The St Petersburg law punishes ‘homosexual propaganda’ in public alongside paedophile propaganda with fines of up to $15,600, and is designed to protect children from positive messages about LGBT people.

St Petersburg Police did not reveal what the individuals had done to break the law or what fines were issued.

However eight would have been the activists arrested when they tried to ignore the city’s ban on gay pride marches on July 7, and another would be Nikolai Alekseyev who was arrested in May for holding up a banner quoting a Soviet actress which read, ‘homosexuality is not a perversity, perverse is hockey on grass and ballet on ice.’

The US State Department issued a statement condemning the bill after its first reading in November last year.

‘We are deeply concerned by proposed local legislation in Russia that would severely restrict freedoms of expression and assembly for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, and indeed all Russians,’ the statement read.

However the Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed US criticism on the issue as ‘inappropriate.’

Russia legalized homosexuality in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union but only ceased to class it as a mental disorder in 1999, and homophobic attitudes are still widespread, with around 70 percent of Russians believing it to be immoral.

(via Russian Laws Keep Gay Life Behind Closed Doors)

Published July 16, 2012

Russian Laws Keep Gay Life Behind Closed Doors

St. Petersburg is often seen as Russia’s most liberal city, but it may be leading a conservative movement against public displays of gay life in Russia. VOA’s James Brooke reports from Moscow.

Russia: Group calls for Facebook ban over gay marriage icon

by Stephen Gray
11 July 2012, 3:35pm

Facebook recently updated its timeline icons to include two grooms and two brides

Religious activists in Russia are calling for a nationwide ban on Facebook now the social network allows gay couples to use an icon to represent their marriage.

According to the government-funded RT.com news network, a group of Russian Orthodox activists in the southern city of Saratov say Facebook is involved in “gay propaganda”.

The social network recently updated the icons users can put on their profile timelines to indicate key personal events.

Gay married users had previously had to use an icon of a bride and groom to mark the date of their wedding.

Now, the head of an Orthodox group says his campaign amassed 34,000 signatures in three days on a petition demanding Facebook stop what he termed “flirting with sodomites”, believing the network is breaking regional laws on ‘gay propaganda’.

Vladimir Roslyakovsky said today: “We demand only one thing: Facebook should be blocked in the entire country because it openly popularizes homosexuality among minors.”

Ryazan, Arkhangelsk, Kostroma, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara and St Petersburg now have laws forbidding the promotion of homosexuality and a national law has been mooted. Russia’s Public Chamber is reportedly examining arguments that the laws are unconstitutional.

Roslyakovsky said he aims to get 1,000,000 citizens of Orthodox and other faiths to sign the petition.

He said: “The US goal is that Russians stop having children. [They want] the great nation to turn into likeness of Sodom and Gomorrah.”

The activists are reportedly prepared to appeal to the Duma to have Facebook banned.

He added that he was “confident that Russian laws and reasonable citizens will be able to protect their children from a fierce attack of sodomites.”

Facebook declined to comment this afternoon.

8 arrested in attempts to hold gay rights rally in St. Petersburg

(Dmitry Lovetsky/ Associated Press ) - Police officers detain gay right activist Yury Gavrikov in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, July 7, 2012. Russian police detained several gay rights activists for holding an unsanctioned protest rally against a law of prohibition of homosexuality propaganda made by the St.Petersburg’s city parliament this year.

By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, July 7, 9:32 AM

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Russian police have broken up attempts to hold two gay rights rallies in St. Petersburg, which this spring adopted a law against spreading “homosexual propaganda.”

Three rally organizers were arrested Saturday at a park in Russia’s second city, and five others were detained at a later rally attempt near the landmark Smolny complex, Russian news agencies reported.

Only six people showed up for the second rally, and the three arrested at the first attempt were the only participants.

Although homosexuality was decriminalized after the fall of the Soviet Union, disdain for gays remains strong in Russia. Some rally attempts provoke violence by opponents.

St. Petersburg passed a law in February calling for fines of up to 500,000 rubles ($15,000) for spreading “homosexual propaganda.”

St Petersburg bans gay pride and charges activists for ‘propaganda’

Despite having received approval on Tuesday, it seems St Petersburg Pride is cancelled again.

Q.

Organizers vow to go ahead with gay pride event in Russian city despite ban

06 July 2012| By Matthew Jenkin

St Petersburg governor Georgy Poltavchenko (left) with President Vladimir Putin

Gay pride in St Petersburg has been banned and the organizers charged under the Russian city’s anti-gay ‘propaganda’ law.

Authorities yesterday (5 July) rejected an application by LGBT group Ravnopravie (Equality) to hold the city’s third annual pride tomorrow (7 July), despite initially authorizing the event on Tuesday (3 July).

City Hall claimed the decision to ban the march for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights was in response to local media reports that called the event ‘gay pride’ rather than a ‘march and a stationary rally’ as described in the application.

After the application was rejected, Yury Gavrikov, head of Ravnopravie, told Chtodelat News that he and another fellow organizer Sergei Volkov were then charged by police officers under the city’s so-called ‘homosexual propaganda’ law which can be used to gag any public discussion of LGBT issues or events targeted at gay and trans people.

Gavrikov says police accused them of distributing information to the media which ‘promote[d] the social equality of same-sex relationships and traditional marriage’ among minors.

The St Petersburg ‘gay gag’ bill has fines of up to 1 million roubles ($34,400 €25,000) for organizations and up to 5,000 roubles ($172 €125) for individuals.

Speaking to RIA Novosti, St Petersburg governor Georgy Poltavchenko’s spokesman Andrei Kibitov claimed the public were also against the pride march.

He said: ‘A great number of calls and emails have been received not only from St. Petersburg, but from the other Russian cities as well, asking [us] to cancel the gay parade.’

Ravnopravie has vowed to go ahead with the demonstration despite the decision but officials warned that they would be breaking the law if they did.

Applications to hold the parade in the last two years have been rejected, with authorities claiming it could damage buildings, cause road accidents or violated the rights of pedestrians not participating in the rally.

LGBT Rally Approved by St. Petersburg Authorities

Society

LGBT Rally Approved by St. Petersburg Authorities

20:40 04/07/2012

ST. PETERSBURG, July 4 (RIA Novosti)

St. Petersburg authorities have approved for the first time an event in support of civil rights for Russia’s gay and transsexual community, an organizer said on Wednesday.

According to Yuri Gavrikov, the St. Petersburg City Hall has authorized an LGBT protest march and a rally on July 7 at the Polyustrovo Park away from the city center. No more than a 1,000 protesters can participate in the event.

“The goal of the action is to attract the attention of the public and the authorities to violations of civil rights of LGBT community and to the need to pass legislation prohibiting discrimination over sexual orientation,” the application for the event submitted to St. Petersburg authorities says.

St. Petersburg’s Legislative Assembly passed the law penalizing “the propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia among minors” in late February. It came into effect on March 11.

The so-called Gay Propaganda law imposes fines of up to $16,000 on individuals and up to $160,000 on legal entities for the promotion of homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender practices among minors.

It follows similar bans in the southern Astrakhan and central Ryazan and Kostroma regions in Russia.

The new legislation outlaws Gay Pride events.

The law has caused a divided reaction among Russians, where anti-gay sentiment remains strong. Russian LGBT groups have requested support in the West against the law that made the “promotion of homosexuality” an administrative offense.

The influential Russian Orthodox Church has backed the law.

Moscow court upholds hundred-year ban on gay pride

No pride in Russia for the next 100 years…

Q.

by Stephen Gray
7 June 2012, 5:34pm

Nikolai Alekseev had filed requests for 102 annual pride marches in Moscow (Photo: Mikhail Shcherbakov)

A court in Moscow has upheld the decision to deny requests for the next hundred years of pride events.

Tverskoy district court said it was lawful for the Russian capital’s municipal government to decline the 102 requests filed by gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseev for pride marches every year until 2112, RT said.

Mr Alekseev confirmed that they would pursue the decision to the Moscow City Court Presidium and the European Court of Human Rights.

He said: “They refuse our requests every time, but in Strasbourg they recognize these rulings as unlawful. But time does not stand still, we ask for a new event and again they refuse us.”

Stonewall International Officer Jasmine O’Connor said of today’s news: “It’s a matter of grave concern that Moscow’s municipal government has again marginalised the city’s gay community.

“It’s another sign of the dire situation for Russia’s 8.5 million lesbian, gay and bisexual people, whose human rights are routinely abused by the government and police. We’ll continue to press the British government to do all it can to confront homophobic human rights abuses worldwide.”

In May, a total of 40 people, mostly gay rights activists, were detained in Moscow after they attempted to hold two demonstrations demanding the right to hold a gay pride parade in the capital.

Mr Alekseev had become the first person to be arrested and fined 5000 rubles under St Petersburg’s ‘gay propaganda’ law, which forbids talking about homosexuality “among minors”. The Russian parliament is now considering extending the anti-propaganda law nationwide.

St Petersburg judge ‘rules LGBT event bans were unlawful’

by Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
1 June 2012, 4:18pm

The local court reportedly said the officials did not have the authority to cancel the rally

A judge in St Petersburg has ruled that bans on gay events put in place by officials under city’s ‘gay propaganda’ legislation were unlawful, it has been reported.

Coming Out St Petersburg said the Smolninsky district court had handed down a decision yesterday saying the authorities lacked the competence to determine whether the events would amount to propaganda before they took place.

It also denied the officials’ standing to cancel events, saying they only had authority to suggest alternative times and places for rallies.

The two planned events were for the Day of Silence on 7 March and the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia on 17 May.

The group said the reasoning for the decision would be made public on 12 June.

Attempted Gay Parade Descends Into Violence, Arrests

Hatred and violence in the name of a god…

Q.

27 May 2012

The Moscow Times

Anton Tushin / Ridus.ru

A religious activists strikes a [protester]

An unsanctioned gay pride parade descended into violence Sunday as religious activists arrived to break up the demonstration and police detained protesters.

More than 10 people were arrested outside the Moscow City Duma Sunday, where gay rights activists had planned to hold to protest a new law being discussed that would ban “homosexual propaganda,” RIA-Novosti reported.

Three of those arrested were Orthodox Church activists who had come to disrupt the protest, while the other detained demonstrators were all participants of the gay rights protest, including event organizer Nikolai Alekseyev.

News media showed pictures and videos of physical altercations between the two groups in which a man holding a rainbow flag was being attacked as journalists stood by with cameras rolling.

Other pictures showed activists hold signs, including one anti-gay protester whose sign read “Moscow is not Sodom.”

After the arrests, the remaining activists were dispersed, and police stayed behind with several police buses to guard the area against further disturbances.

The organizers of the parade had planned for a crowd of several thousand to gather for a picket at the City Duma at 1 p.m. and to move to City Hall an hour later. Police had warned that demonstrators could face arrests and fines for holding an unsanctioned protest.

City authorities have repeatedly refused to allow gay parades, denying permission at lease six times since 2006.

The City Duma last month began discussions on the creation of an anti-gay law similar to one already in force in St. Petersburg, but have also decided to broaden its scope to ban all kinds of ”sexual propaganda.”

Nikolai Alekseev first to be convicted of ‘gay propaganda’ in St Petersburg

by Stephen Gray
4 May 2012, 9:58am

Nikolai Alekseev being arrested during a 2010 protest (Photo: Nico111)

Gay rights campaigner Nikolai Alekseev has become the first man to be convicted under St Petersburg’s recent ‘gay propaganda’ laws.

Mr Alekseev was said to have been fined 5,000 roubles, just over £100, by a court in Russia’s second city for the promotion of homosexuality among minors, AP reports.

The law was approved in February; this is the first time a citizen has been successfully prosecuted under it.

Mr Alekseev had held up a sign reading “Homosexuality is not a perversion” outside the Smolny Institute in April in public view.

A former journalist, Mr Alekseev turned his attention to full-time gay rights campaigning in 2005, setting up the gay rights advocacy group GayRussia.ru.

He has appeared regularly on Russian television and has been honoured for his work by LGBT organisations worldwide.

He has been arrested on numerous occasions for holding illegal Pride marches and gay rights demonstrations and launched lawsuits against Moscow authorities for banning the events and had announced his intention to retire last year.

17 Gay Rights Activists Arrested By Russian Police At May Day Rally

Links to a couple of short youtube videos of the arrests below.

Q.

By Gus

– May 1, 2012

Seventeen gay rights activists were arrested while trying to unfurl rainbow flags at rally in St Petersburg.

Reuters reports:

Russian police detained at least 17 gay rights demonstrators during May Day celebrations in St Petersburg on Tuesday, a rights group said.

The detentions follow the adoption of a law by the city authorities which imposes fines for spreading gay “propaganda” among minors, which European diplomats have said lacks clarity and allows too much room for interpretation by police.

Russian lawmakers are considering similar legislation nationwide.

Svetlana Barsukova, a member of St Petersburg-based homosexual rights group “Coming Out”, said various groups of gay rights activists had been detained in different parts of the city after trying to unfurl rainbow flags.

Read the full article via REUTERS

A couple of short videos of the arrests:

http://youtu.be/e8o8OpE7PpI

http://youtu.be/Q4HGQm3NWRY

Siberia passes anti-gay propaganda bill

Deputies intend to push legislation to a federal level

27 April 2012| By Jean Paul Zapata

Russia’s third-largest city Novosibirsk is the latest to join in the criminalization of ‘gay propaganda’.

Deputies in Moscow have come forward saying they intend to push the initiative to a federal level. The law prohibits the promotion of gay, bisexual and transgender activity among minors.

Regional deputy for education Alexander Ilyushchenko said: ‘Today we are talking about protecting the majority of people who are not associated with homosexuality, to keep them from having to explain to their children that things like this happen’.

St. Petersburg enacted the anti-gay legislation in March, allowing for fines up to 500,000 rubles ($16,500 €12,400) for ‘spreading homosexual propaganda’ among minors.

The anti-gay propaganda law could also potentially prevent gay-related events including pride parades from taking place. Gay rights activists intend to hold a parade on 27 May to protest the legislation. Protests against the bill have already resulted in numerous arrests.