The mayor of
Moscow said the city will not allow gay pride marches to
take place on this year's May Day holiday, Agence
France-Presse reported Wednesday.
The mayor of
Moscow said the city will not allow gay pride marches to
take place on this year's May Day holiday, Agence
France-Presse reported Wednesday. Mayor Yury Luzhkov
has been an opponent of gay pride marches, once
calling them "Satan's work." A spokesperson for the mayor
told reporters that a permit for the parade is being
denied because of Russian society's opposition to the
"gay lifestyle and philosophy." He also said the
government wanted to avoid what it assumed would be
widespread violence as a reaction to the parade.
Nicolai Alexeyev,
the leader of LGBT activist group Gay Russia, has been
working to get the mayor to allow the events. An
unsanctioned parade in May 2007 to commemorate the
decriminalization of homosexuality ended in violent
gay bashing by ultranationalists.
"This is not a
question of security," Alexeyev told AFP. "It is
only a question of the personal hatred of the Moscow
mayor toward gay people." (The Advocate)
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