It’s one thing when bigots and skinheads assault LGBT activists at Moscow Pride. It’s another when it’s pro-democracy advocates doing the attacking at protests across Russia.As GayStarNews reports, gays throughout the country are saying they’re being denied a voice—an in some cases facing violence—at rallies protesting election fraud and corruption in the former Soviet Union.
In St Petersburg Igor Kochetkov, chairperson of the Vyhod LGBT Organisation and the Russian LGBT-Network, was prevented by the opposition movement from speaking at the demonstration panel, according to reports by both Kochetkov via his Twitter account, confirmed by Nikolai Alekseev, chairman and founder of GayRussia and Moscow Pride.
Kochetkov was part of the St Petersburg’s organising committee of the demonstration and was due to give a speech when he was told minutes before attempting to go on stage that the opposition ‘is not supporting your movement and you won’t be allowed to speak.’
According to LGBT Asylum News, a man holding a rainbow flag at a pro-democracy protest in Novosibirsk was assaulted by members of the Russian Nationalist Party. “I think that if you sit very quietly and do nothing, then nothing will change,” the unnamed victim said.
And in Lipetsk, about 270 miles southeast of Moscow, a group holding a sign reading “gays and lesbians for fair elections” were blocked by authorities and told to “keep it for your gay parade later.”
Outspoken activist Peter Tatchell, who was attacked at the attempted 2007 Moscow Pride Parade, told GSN:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“The censorship and ejection of LGBT campaigners from the democracy demonstrations is shameful. It shows that many of the so-called democracy leaders are not committed to universal human rights. They are Putin-lite. They want to moderate the Kremlin regime, rather than change it. If they came to power, LGBT Russians would gain little.”
All this goes on, of course while more regions in the country pass legislation banning LGBT organizations, demonstrations and, in some cases, even discussion of the topic.
We guess “some of us are just a little more equal than others” works in Russian too.
Image via Max Trudo
Wies
sick
jason
Never trust those sleazy Russians. They are a people who failed dismally with their Communism experiment and who now have to live with the shame of their poor choices.
Kenny
Savages
Ginasf
There are a very wide variety of groups in the protests… most of whom are not homophobic, but a minority are. There is a lot of homophobia in all strata of Russian society. United Russia has tried to make it sound as if the protests are dominated by right wing groups, which is a total lie. Many parties involved in them, like Yabloka are extremely pro-LGBTQ rights.
I note that RT (which gives a very pro-United Russia line) has discussed homophobia and transphobia in the former republics (especially Georgia) but never discusses it when it concerns United Russia mayors completely promoting homophobic policies. United Russia is doing everything it can to discredit the protests, including using agent provocateurs and misinformation. Let’s not forget Putin’s KGB background and take some of this for what it is… appearing a little too conveniently before the elections. Ask yourself when did United Russia ever support the rights of LGBTQ people before?
Igor
“Yabloko extremely pro-LGBTQ”? Are you kidding me? Maybe it’s the only registered party (that doesn’t manage to get into the parliament anyway) that doesn’t support officially anti-LGBT repressions. How come it took them a month to exclude Fedulov who compared gays with pedophiles and alcoholics and called to “fight the evil”? And they didn’t really condemn those hateful statements. Most of Yabloko’s members are the same homophobes (of course, the situation is not so hopeless comparing it to other Russian parties, but it’s still worse than even among Western European Conservatives), it’s just that the party seeks for the support of the Western liberals. Don’t get false illusions. It’s the Russian reality nowadays. “Pro-Democratic” anti-regime protesters of course aren’t all ultranationalists (but a considerable part. is Navalny in your opinion a person who would support anti-gay discrimination ban? it’s ridiculous). The majority of the protesters are either authoritarian communists (missing Stalin yet?) or pseudoliberals who think liberty is their right to call you a f** while you’re forced to lead a rat’s life “hiding in the basements” ’cause you’re “not a human”. Most of them are as authoritarian as the Putinists and want more careless life and freedom just for themselves.
sic!
@jason:
It works pretty well in PRC since communists buy out all of your international debts and own your silly ass, so you can have money to fight for oil in Iraq
Ewan
@jason:
Sleazy Russians? Racist much? Not to mention profoundly ignorant. For a start the “communist experiment” of the USSR was about as genuinely communist as western democracy is genuinely democratic…which is to say, not remotely. And the Russian people made no “poor choices,” the regime was thrust upon them at the beginning of the last century, and is now gone. So tell me, how are the current generation of Russians responsible for that, and deserving of the “shame” and the collective apparently cosmic retribution that you seem to think they are so sorely deserving of?
Ambrose
Pathetic country.