A Moscow court
ruled Tuesday that the city government did not act
illegally when it banned a gay pride parade in May. The
court justified its ruling by saying the city had the
right to ban the event out of concerns for security,
the official Russian news agency Itar Tass reports.
Dmitry Bartenev, an attorney for the two LGBT
groups that proceeded with the march despite the ban,
told the agency that he will appeal the decision.
"As to my mind, the ban on the parade amounts to the
infringements of the sex minorities' rights," he said.
However, Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov maintains
that the ruling was morally right. "Such
functions may be acceptable in European countries more
'advanced' in such matters than Russia," he told a
Moscow radio station, but added, "I believe this parade is
impermissible in our country, above all, on moral and
ethical grounds."
Police arrested 200 people during the
unauthorized May 27 parade, where antigay protesters,
including skinheads, assaulted the marchers by
throwing bottles, among other objects, at them. Among the
victims was a man beaten to the point of blacking out.
(The Advocate)