Riot police in Moscow have arrested 39 people who were among hundreds protesting a gay event at a local nightclub on Monday. The police moved in to control the crowd of right-wing nationalists, skinheads, and religious activists, who picketed the club and shouted insults at people leaving it, the BBC reports.
A leading gay rights activist said the rallies, which began on Sunday, were the result of homophobic remarks by the city government and religious leaders, some of whom described the presence of gays as "damaging to Russia." Most of the 39 arrested were charged with minor public order offenses.
The demonstrators were an unlikely alliance of young men, from a Russian nationalist group, and Orthodox Christians, many of them elderly women, the BBC said. On Monday night a crowd of about 100 of them tried to prevent people entering Moscow's best-known gay club.
Some shouted antigay epithets, while others waved crosses and religious icons, chanting, "God is with us." They smashed windows on two cars after throwing eggs, fruit, and plastic bottles at people leaving another club.
Gays in the country are planning their first public pride march for later this month. Moscow's mayor has said he will ban the march because he believes homosexuality is not natural and because the event would cause outrage in society. Nikolai Alekseyev, one of Russia's highest-profile gay rights campaigners, blamed the mayor's comments for inspiring fanatics and nationalists and for provoking them to violence. (The Advocate)
