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RUSSIA
Russia: Police violence against queer activists

Shelly Dahl

31 May 2007

On May 27, 150 queer activists, including members of the European Parliament and MPs from parliaments of EU member countries, gathered in Moscow’s Tverskaya Square near City Hall to deliver a petition calling on the city council to lift its ban on a gay pride parade. While ordinary police stood by, 200 riot police, Christian right-wingers and fascists violently attacked the activists. According to reports, 31 people were arrested — 30 of them queer-rights activists.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has said that the city government will not allow a gay parade “in any form”, describing them as “satanic", and said that any attempt to hold a gay event will be “resolutely quashed”.

According to a May 16 Gayrussia.ru article: “Russia decriminalised homosexuality in 1993. Tolerance is slowly rising, with a handful of gay clubs opening in large cities since the Soviet Union collapsed. But the country has no high-profile openly gay politicians or business leaders.”

A online petition condemning the attack can be found at http://www.petitiononline.com/RusLBGT/petition.html. The petition calls on “Russia to start recognising human rights such as the freedom of speech, of assembly and crucially, to accord rights to homosexuals living in the near totalitarian regime now in power”.