28/05: Gay Pride in Moscow
There was another attempt to make a gay pride rally in Moscow last weekend, but the event was prohibited upfront by Mayor Lushkov. Still some 40 gay activists wanted to go to the city hall and deliver a protest note. They were aggressed by radical nationalists and religious fanatics. The OMON riot police arrested some activists, especially foreign ones, for their own "protection", but mostly they were standing there watching the activists getting beat up by skinheads.
I haven't been there, but I collected some materials from the Internet and I would like to comment on the event and the (mostly) foreign criticism. By the way. My name is Chris Helmbrecht aka "two-zero". I am writing the Moscow-Blog(.com) since 3 years and I just joined WayToRussia. I'll mostly write about lifestyle in Moscow, but now and then I can't resist to write something a bit more political. Feel free to comment as you like.
The newspapers and websites are full with articles about Moscows surpressed Gay Pride from yesterday. While I have been recovering from my girlfriends birthdayparty-hangover (where we had some gay guests as well) on a datcha outside of Moscow, others were fighting for their "human right" to be and live homosexual.
I am not sure, if it is a co-incident, but it may show some insenstitivity of choosing the date by the organizers of the gay pride, the russian orthodox church was celebrating Pentecost as well yesterday, which may have added some fuel to the opposing radical orthodox demonstrators on site.
As I have not been there myself I would like to present you with some materials I have found on other sites and at the end I will give a short comment, which is my personal opinion of the situation between gays and heteros in Russia.
CNN:
Here is the full article:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/27/russia.gayrights.reut/
Video on CNN.com
Some photos from the web:
Check URBAN POSTINGS Flickr Page for more....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanpostings/
Pre-Protest in Feb, when mayor Lushkov banned the parade
Check URBAN POSTINGS Flickr Page for more....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/outrage/
Nationalist is about to punch English gay activist on Moscow Gay Pride 2007
From ADACRI on FLickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adacri/
Videos from Youtube:
BBC Video on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-qhnkKuG7A
Comment:
As usual the outcry in the West is loud. Russia is not democratic, its not respecting the human rights and its politicians suppress any opposition with violence and any other means they have. The media puts the opponents Putin and mayor Lushkov in one camp, even though its widely known (even by these correspondents) that they dislike each other a lot and their political views are much different from each other. One should keep in mind, that Russia is only "free" since about 18 years now. Before many things, not only homosexuality were handled much different. Homosexuality was even considered a crime, although some of the communist party members were obviously enjoying male company more than women (at least that is what one hears from locals). Nowadays Russia has changed, but the process is still going on and its going to be a very long one. Of course the government could be more liberal, but it is fearing the consequences and probably that is not so wrong. Russia being such a large and wild country with so many cultures living under the same roof, some of these cultures being much different from what we know in Europe it is not comparable with Europe or the US.
That being said, I don't want to justify the governments opinion and treatment of the gay. It is even more cynical, knowing that there are homosexual politicians among Russian leaders nowadays as well, but they are just not showing their sexual preference openly to everyone, fearing repression by fellow party members or the public. There are further more homosexuals in leading positions in the Russian economy and of course even more in the arts. I'd go that far to say, that the artistic sector is almost completely controlled by gays at this time.
I have recently seen a program on Russian TV (NTV), where two opponents are put together and they discuss their issues with each other. This one was about homosexuality and the gay pride. Viewers from all over Russia can call in and give their vote. The results can be seen at the bottom of the screen and it was very interesting to watch the development, during the program. At the end, the votes were about 45% pro gay and the rest for the radical who spoke on the other side. I don't remember well, but I think that radical was Shirinovsky. Considering that some of the voters may have not been educated well and probably believe the horror stories spread by these ultra nationalists and religious people, e.g. "Gays approach your children on the playground and try to abuse them", this was a very good result in my opinion. I would have expected a much lower pro gay percentage and I think this is totally comparable with other European countries.
Nevertheless, homosexuality, as other controversial subjects in Russian culture, are a hot topic of discussion, even within groups of educated people. I think the process will take much more time and as usual the West has way too high expectations. At this point every Russian critic should ask himself, how long it took homosexuals to get accepted in Europe and the US. I think, it was a much longer process than 18 years and its actually still causing problems in some European or US regions (just imagine the religious Southern US states). On the other hand ultra nationalist and religious scare me, as every fanatic is scaring the shit out of me. I don't understand, why the government is abusing and using these dumb people on any occasion, to give a hard kick to the Russian opposition. I furthermore don't understand that, because I believe Putin and his government did a great job in the past 7 years (in terms of stabilizing the country and the economy). They seem widely accepted and even honored for that, by the Russian public. It just doesn't want to go into my head, why this government is using every occasion to beat up some small opposition groups (by OMON police or using these radical groups) in front of running foreign cameras. I really don't understand that self-destroying PR behavior, especially since there doesn't seem to be a real reason for it. Or is there something I don't know? Is the Russian government really so paranoid about these little opposition groups and expecting another flowery colored, with foreign money financed, revolution?
I haven't been there, but I collected some materials from the Internet and I would like to comment on the event and the (mostly) foreign criticism. By the way. My name is Chris Helmbrecht aka "two-zero". I am writing the Moscow-Blog(.com) since 3 years and I just joined WayToRussia. I'll mostly write about lifestyle in Moscow, but now and then I can't resist to write something a bit more political. Feel free to comment as you like.
The newspapers and websites are full with articles about Moscows surpressed Gay Pride from yesterday. While I have been recovering from my girlfriends birthdayparty-hangover (where we had some gay guests as well) on a datcha outside of Moscow, others were fighting for their "human right" to be and live homosexual.
I am not sure, if it is a co-incident, but it may show some insenstitivity of choosing the date by the organizers of the gay pride, the russian orthodox church was celebrating Pentecost as well yesterday, which may have added some fuel to the opposing radical orthodox demonstrators on site.
As I have not been there myself I would like to present you with some materials I have found on other sites and at the end I will give a short comment, which is my personal opinion of the situation between gays and heteros in Russia.
CNN:
Riot police detained gay rights activists as they tried to present a petition asking Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has called gay marches satanic acts, to lift a ban on the parade.
Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 but tolerance is not widespread.
"It (homosexuality) is satanic," he told Reuters. One man holding a crucifix threatened to beat-up any gay person he saw."
Here is the full article:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/27/russia.gayrights.reut/
Video on CNN.com
Some photos from the web:
Check URBAN POSTINGS Flickr Page for more....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanpostings/
Pre-Protest in Feb, when mayor Lushkov banned the parade
Check URBAN POSTINGS Flickr Page for more....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/outrage/
Nationalist is about to punch English gay activist on Moscow Gay Pride 2007
From ADACRI on FLickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adacri/
Videos from Youtube:
BBC Video on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-qhnkKuG7A
Comment:
As usual the outcry in the West is loud. Russia is not democratic, its not respecting the human rights and its politicians suppress any opposition with violence and any other means they have. The media puts the opponents Putin and mayor Lushkov in one camp, even though its widely known (even by these correspondents) that they dislike each other a lot and their political views are much different from each other. One should keep in mind, that Russia is only "free" since about 18 years now. Before many things, not only homosexuality were handled much different. Homosexuality was even considered a crime, although some of the communist party members were obviously enjoying male company more than women (at least that is what one hears from locals). Nowadays Russia has changed, but the process is still going on and its going to be a very long one. Of course the government could be more liberal, but it is fearing the consequences and probably that is not so wrong. Russia being such a large and wild country with so many cultures living under the same roof, some of these cultures being much different from what we know in Europe it is not comparable with Europe or the US.
That being said, I don't want to justify the governments opinion and treatment of the gay. It is even more cynical, knowing that there are homosexual politicians among Russian leaders nowadays as well, but they are just not showing their sexual preference openly to everyone, fearing repression by fellow party members or the public. There are further more homosexuals in leading positions in the Russian economy and of course even more in the arts. I'd go that far to say, that the artistic sector is almost completely controlled by gays at this time.
I have recently seen a program on Russian TV (NTV), where two opponents are put together and they discuss their issues with each other. This one was about homosexuality and the gay pride. Viewers from all over Russia can call in and give their vote. The results can be seen at the bottom of the screen and it was very interesting to watch the development, during the program. At the end, the votes were about 45% pro gay and the rest for the radical who spoke on the other side. I don't remember well, but I think that radical was Shirinovsky. Considering that some of the voters may have not been educated well and probably believe the horror stories spread by these ultra nationalists and religious people, e.g. "Gays approach your children on the playground and try to abuse them", this was a very good result in my opinion. I would have expected a much lower pro gay percentage and I think this is totally comparable with other European countries.
Nevertheless, homosexuality, as other controversial subjects in Russian culture, are a hot topic of discussion, even within groups of educated people. I think the process will take much more time and as usual the West has way too high expectations. At this point every Russian critic should ask himself, how long it took homosexuals to get accepted in Europe and the US. I think, it was a much longer process than 18 years and its actually still causing problems in some European or US regions (just imagine the religious Southern US states). On the other hand ultra nationalist and religious scare me, as every fanatic is scaring the shit out of me. I don't understand, why the government is abusing and using these dumb people on any occasion, to give a hard kick to the Russian opposition. I furthermore don't understand that, because I believe Putin and his government did a great job in the past 7 years (in terms of stabilizing the country and the economy). They seem widely accepted and even honored for that, by the Russian public. It just doesn't want to go into my head, why this government is using every occasion to beat up some small opposition groups (by OMON police or using these radical groups) in front of running foreign cameras. I really don't understand that self-destroying PR behavior, especially since there doesn't seem to be a real reason for it. Or is there something I don't know? Is the Russian government really so paranoid about these little opposition groups and expecting another flowery colored, with foreign money financed, revolution?
Total Votes: 5 - Rating: 5.00
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Russophile.com wrote:
By the way, I posted some links and more information on these events on my website.