Russian police officers arrest Russian gay community leader Nikolai Alexeyev at a protest in Moscow.



Richard Fairbrass of British pop band "Right Said Fred" after being beaten by ultra-nationalists in Moscow.

Quote :

"MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- Russian police detained gay protesters calling for the right to hold a Gay Pride parade in central Moscow on Sunday while nationalists shouting "death to homosexuals" punched and kicked the demonstrators. 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. Nationalists and extreme Russian Orthodox believers held icons and denounced homosexuality as "evil" while a group of thick-set young men turned up with surgeon's masks, which they said would protect them from the "gay disease." (Watch angry opponents punch protesters ) "We are defending our rights," said a young gay man named Alexey, with blood pouring out of his nose after he was beaten up by a man screaming "homosexuals are perverts" opposite the mayor's office. His attacker was detained. "This is terrible but I am not scared. This is a pretty scary place, a pretty scary country if you are gay. But we won't give up until they allow us our rights," he said. Hundreds of riot police lined Tverskaya street in central Moscow and plain-clothes police mingled with a large number of foreign and Russian journalists. Parade organizer Nikolai Alexeyev told Reuters by telephone from a police station that about 20 people had been detained, a figure confirmed by police. "We are sitting in the police station right now. We were detained outside the mayor's office when we tried to present the petition," said Alexeyev. Gay tolerance Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 but tolerance is not widespread. "We believe these perverts should not be allowed to march on the streets of Moscow, the third Rome, a holy city for all Russians," said Igor Miroshnichenko, who said he was an Orthodox believer who had come to support the riot police. "It (homosexuality) is satanic," he told Reuters. One man holding a crucifix threatened to beat-up any gay person he saw. Richard Fairbrass, a gay singer with the British pop group Right Said Fred, was punched in the face and kicked by anti-gay activists while speaking to Reuters in an interview. "We understand this is a gay event and so we came down here today," Fairbrass told Reuters before being hit. Blood dripped from his face after the attack. Volker Beck, a German green party politician and gay rights campaigner, was hit in the face with eggs before being detained by riot police. "We didn't do anything," he told Reuters as he was led away. Germany's Green Party Chairwoman Claudia Roth called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to raise the issue of rights with President Vladimir Putin at next month's G8 summit. "It has been shown once again today that human rights are systematically abused in Putin's Russia," she said in a statement. Beck was later released. "It is very conspicuous when people are arrested in front of the mayor's office when they were doing nothing other than trying to present a peaceful petition," said Scott Long, a rights activist with Human Rights Watch who observed the events. "There was no real attempt to separate the two sides and that led to people being beaten up," he said. "I would call on the Russian authorities to protect freedom of assembly, protect freedom of expression and protect demonstrators." "

Members of a Russian profascist organisation "Rus" (Russia) demonstrate against a gay pride march.



Russian ultra-nationalist about to punch veteran British gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell at a protest in Moscow.

You know, I read things like this and think North Carolina's not such a bad place to be.

5/27/2007 4:05:58 PM

I remember seeing a thing on Real TV where the Russian police were looking for a suspect in a robbery in an apartment building, so they started busting down doors... they had baseball bats, door rams, a portable circular saw and assualt rifles. They tackled this one guy in his apartment and an officer was stepping on his throat. They his several times to other people in the building...they continued through the complex till they found the guy they were looking for.


Lessons: don't live in a country without meaningful civil rights

5/27/2007 4:12:55 PM

PWNt

5/27/2007 4:28:01 PM

do they really think a petition is going to work against a person who thinks you are devil-spawn.

5/27/2007 4:53:46 PM

Probably not, but change has to start somewhere; otherwise they’ll never think anything different.

News video clip on the incident:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/avdb/news/world/video/96000/bb/96947_16x9_bb.asx

other discussion:
http://ncst.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2463266812

5/27/2007 8:25:59 PM

these people are barbaric

but to be fair...

i don't know how much better America is when it comes to this issue

it's not right to treat people like second class citizens or pariahs because of who they love

5/27/2007 10:45:30 PM

There is a reason that millions of people risk death from drowning, sharks, dehydration, starvation, and so on to reach the United States of America. I think it's appropriate today to remember: The United States is not a perfect country, but it's better than most.

5/27/2007 10:59:01 PM

^ oh you did, didn't you

5/27/2007 11:30:26 PM

^^^

seeing russians act like nazis or looking towards hitler as a role model in any fashion is really strange

5/27/2007 11:39:20 PM

I'm too sexy for the Fascists, too sexy for their bashes,
too sexy for eye gashes

And I'm too sexy for head blows, too sexy for this broken nose
or for the rubber bullets and fire hose

I'm too sexy for roadblocks, or for the Russian Orthodox
too sexy for their crooked little cocks

I'm an agitator you know what I mean
And I do my little turn to your catcalls
Yeah to your catcalls, but I've got big balls
And I shake my little tush to your catcalls





[Edited on May 28, 2007 at 12:15 AM. Reason : ]

5/28/2007 12:05:13 AM

"i don't know how much better America is when it comes to this issue"

America still has a way to go, but NC's not so bad.

I think things are atleast moving the right direction in NC and that makes me proud to be a part of NC, especially when compared to some other places in the world. NCSU just got that gay center over this recently completed academic year. In the NC towns I live and work in its not uncommon to say gay/lesbian couples holding hands downtown on a daily basis. They have some level of domestic partner benefits. The town has even had an openly gay mayor.

Raleigh alone has half a dozen gay clubs/bars, not to mention bookstores, universities w/ gay groups, and parades as do many cities across NC. I think it’s good that groups like this exist in that they push the comfort boundaries far enough out that the non-activist types can’t help but still seem unobjectionable for things as simple as holding hands.



[Edited on May 28, 2007 at 2:21 AM. Reason : .]

5/28/2007 1:53:58 AM

I'm a little surprised that the Russian Orthodox were so involved in this. It's not that they're notoriously tolerant, it's just that normally they're far, far too lazy.

5/28/2007 2:51:04 PM

On a somewhat related theme (but I'm not starting a new thread over it)

http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/fighthate_video

Here's an online petition sort of thing thats for hate crime legislation. I think that it is important to distinguish between freedom of expression & true hate crimes. But the kind of stuff in that video, beatings & murder, didn't seem like any of it was on the freedom of expression end.

6/20/2007 10:04:37 PM

I missed this thread originally

I'm not much for homosexuality, but to treat another human who is of no threat to you in this manner is sickening



I'm glad I live in America

6/20/2007 10:08:40 PM

http://ncst.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2366109110
http://ncst.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2398325717

A few other facebook groups semi-related to the topic of the thread.

6/20/2007 11:30:43 PM

And you fags thought you were being oppressed here

6/21/2007 9:56:32 AM

i'm still LOLing at the guy from Right Said Fred

6/21/2007 10:00:54 AM

brilliance went unnoticed.

Quote :

" I'm too sexy for the Fascists, too sexy for their bashes, too sexy for eye gashes And I'm too sexy for head blows, too sexy for this broken nose or for the rubber bullets and fire hose I'm too sexy for roadblocks, or for the Russian Orthodox too sexy for their crooked little cocks I'm an agitator you know what I mean And I do my little turn to your catcalls Yeah to your catcalls, but I've got big balls And I shake my little tush to your catcalls "

6/21/2007 6:09:37 PM

what???


the right said fred guy is gay???

6/21/2007 7:00:34 PM