You may recall that Dan Choi decided to attend today’s Moscow Pride despite the disingenuous claim that Moscovite police could not protect anyone marching from attacking Neo-Nazis. UK Gay News is also offering up to the minute details about the march and the arrestees, which include Choi:
00:45. The day has arrived. And most here are, shall we say, somewhat concerned. And for good reason … in 12 hours, we will face the “triple whammy” of thugs that have publicly vowed to stop Pride going ahead, the police who have a habit of letting the thugs do as they planned before moving in to make arrests of the Pride participants while letting the thugs get away, and the often violent OMON ‘riot police’, about the only remnant from the Soviet era. This has been the experience of most of the previous Moscow Prides. Who knows, the top ‘brass’ at the Council of Europe, together with reported diplomatic pressure over the past week or two, might have persuaded the Russian President to hand down an order to the Moscow Mayor to keep the thugs away and “un-ban” the Pride. Perchance to dream…
10:30. A small number of gay activists are out on “spying” missions in central Moscow (Red Square and City Hall areas). There are reports that groups of thugs gathering. Pride organisers have put out the word that the thugs are wearing black clothes and will surround Pride participants before any attack. Any attack will be made quickly, before the police can intervene…
11:55. Media interest in today’s actions is higher than in the previous years, with news agencies calling the different organisers all the morning trying to find out where to be best located. Communication with foreign participants is being done mostly via Skype…
12:15. Skinheads are reported to be waiting at City Hall. They are in a bus very similar to those used by the police. “I would not be surprised that this is a provocation from the authorities to justify their illegal ban on the basis that the security cannot be guaranteed,” said Nikolai Alekseev…
12:45. 50 skinheads, together with members of the Russian Orthodox Church, have assembled close to the Alexandrovski Gardens. Also there are the police, OMON and army…
13:29. “All participants of Moscow Pride at Alexandrovski Gardens was been “brutally arrested”, Chad Meacham has just reported. The arrest were made as participants arrived at the Gardens. One person, Louis-Georges Tin was allowed to give an interview with the world’s TV and press. No names of those arrested are not known, apart from Anna…
14:00. Andy Thayer is confirmed as having been arrested, along with Dan Choi and Louis-Georges Tin, Anna and three other Russian gay activists….
Surprisingly, Russian police allowed the arrestees to keep their cell phones and Dan has been tweeting in jail. His last tweet was actually about 10 minutes ago, so there will definitely be more as this develops.
Choi’s first tweet is at the bottom, his most recent at the top.
Tallskin
Fucking good for him.
He has my support
Jeffree
Dan says they’re releasing the foreigners now.
Mark
Dan Choi is an idiot.
jason
Keep fighting the good fight, Dan. While many of your fellow gays are more interested in being dance bunnies, you actually go out there and rattle a few cages, including those of the Soviet thugs. You have my total support, Dan.
Meanwhile, gay male dance bunnies can go to heck.
[email protected]
@ Mark: what does your comment make YOU?
a. A cockroach.
b. A coward.
c. An Obambot who still can’t get over Dan daring criticize your Massa?
d. All of the above.
jason
Dan Choi is a very passionate man. Almost to a fault, actually. If gay men around the world had a tenth of Dan’s passion, we’d be far more progressed than we are now.
delurker
The most dangerous place on earth is the space between Choi and a tv camera. He’ll cut a bitch.
ngblog
@[email protected]: and what does your comment make you, Michael? A republican hack who is ruining the legacy of leonard matlovich by continually scapegoating obama rather than the guys who put dadt on the books, bill clinton and richard socarides.
delurker
@ngblog: nah, he’s a disgruntled hillbot. he excuses bill’s signing of DADT and DOMA and criticizes obama’s repeal of DADT at every turn. go figure.
ewe
This is no different than when Hitler was chancellor in 1933 an 1934. We all know it did not get any better either because most people thought hate could not grow out of control. Well it did and this is the same thing. Disgraceful. Discrimination. Diabolical.
ewe
The Brownshirts assaulted and kicked americans in Berlin when they did not heil hitler. I see no difference. This is disgraceful. People can walk around taking photographs (thank goodness) while gay people get arrested for being gay. Dangerous. DANGEROUS…
ewe
Should gay russian men and women pay police salaries for this type of treatment? Start and end in the courts like us over here.
ewe
I would expect to hear denouncements by the American Ambassador very soon. It better happen.
Adonis-of-Fire
This is what I’m talking about! A warrior willing to fight for equality, while some cowards bash him for showing strenght, I see why so many hate us, most of us are cowardly frail spineless maggots
IAbuseGays
Good for gay rights that we got people like Dan and the Russian activists.
How many of you bitches were even worried about international gay rights like in Russia before rushing in here to crap on Dan’s character?
I don’t care if you are for Democrats or Republicans. I want an answer to the question I asked. So, no trying to deflect through your normal whines about this or that party. They are both crap parties when it comes to being gay. So, I am not interested in that. Let’s talk about how much you care about gay rights for all gay people of the world?
IAbuseGays
@Adonis-of-Fire: You know- you okay until you rationalized hate by using nasty people as an excuse for others to hate all gays. There are nasty people in every group. There are also good people like Dan. Rather than generalizing, why don’t you focus on realizing that the thing Dan is fighting for is the idea that all gays, good and bad, should be treated fairly and be given human rights.
Lyndon Evans
Moscow Pride 2011 Fizzles And Burns !
http://focusontherainbowopine.outloudblogs.com/2011/05/28/moscow-pride-illegal-protest-fizzels-out-as-very-few-lgbts-and-anti-gay-p/
jason
I Abuse Gays,
Most gay men of today do NOT care about gay rights. Most gay men care about looking good on a Saturday night so that they can find someone to fuck.
SARA
@jason: Very true. As for Choi, I can’t get past his Republican affiliation. Sorry folk. Carry on
IAbuseGays
@SARA: I have a problem with that too, but I don’t use it as an excuse to attack Choi’s obvious passion for gay rights. I simply ignore him on the GOP stuff because I don’t find that particularly useful. Frankly, I see no value in either party. What’s useful is focus on human rights around the world and how he contextualizes the battle in terms of history.
IAbuseGays
@jason: I would assume you mean young, white, middle class and American because that’s the core group you are describing as well as those who emulate or react to them. As you move away from that group, you see a much more complicated picture of what gay men are. One of the things about privilege is that those in privilege assume everyone is just like them. There are many different types of gays as their are straights. It is just that our minority status makes that differentiation harder to find.
jason
I know there are many different individuals who identify as gay but the marketing within the gay scene is always sex-oriented. It’s frightfully monolithic. The marketing is always about sex. Sex, sex, sex. Scary. We’ve become a community based on a sex act.
IAbuseGays
@jason: You have some issues with gay sex that you need to work out. The conversation of this piece is about Dan Choi risking his life for equality. Some people, most of whom are just idiots, disagree. They are no different than the status quo blacks who during Jim Crow didn’t want MLK to cause a big fuss. Its an unfortunate element of human rights fights that you will always have a contingent that is cowardly and wants to maintain the status quo at all cost, even to themselves. Its not about sex. Its about them being afraid. They internalize that fear , flip it, and then attack those who would be their heroes decades from now when the heroes have won the rights. Your response does not help me understand why the cowards disagree. Your response simply illuminate your issues with gay sex in general. I like gay sex. A lot. I am also for equality. Dan Choi likes gay sex. A l ot. He’s on Grindr. He’s also over in Russia fighting for human rights.
Lawrence in Phoenix
I applaud Mr. Choi for his decision to stand with Russian men & women who are doing nothing more than being who they are. If it weren’t for people like Mr. Choi during the Stonewall riots, we wouldn’t have some of the freedoms we do today.
We have a long way to go, no doubt. But I marched in Pride here in Phoenix with a gay affinity group sponsored by my employer last month in front of 30,000 cheering supporters. I didn’t need security to protect me from neo-nazi attackers.
These freedoms are all-to-often taken for granted. There are people living in 2011 that cannot be who they are, not because they aren’t willing to take a stand with their family & friends, but because their own personal safety and very freedom is at stake.
Shannon1981
Glad Choi did what he did, and hope he is ok. I might disagree with much of what he says, but this took balls, and I want him home safely.
Cam
Choi was one of the voices that were continually on the news and fighting for our rights here while Joe Solomnase and HRC were all telling us to shut up and be nice quiet little gays.
Good for Choi, keep up the fight.
jason
I Abuse Gays,
It’s not the gay sex act that riles me. Rather, it’s the use of gay sex as a marketing ploy by those who are marketing to the gay male community. It also riles me that many gay rights concepts are obliterated by the cultural imperative of promiscuity.
It’s like a magnetic force compelling gay men towards hedonism and promiscuity. In such circumstances, there is very little activism. Only those who consciously extract themselves from this magnetic field are worthy of being called gay rights advocates.
ewe
@jason: You know Jason, what happened in Moscow is very important and you are derailing everyone by getting off topic. I wish you would understand the appropriate time and place for everything because your rant about gay sex as a marketing ploy minimizes what occurred there. It has nothing to do with what we are discussing and more important in case you have not figured it out advertising sex is not exclusively gay so get back to the oppression of gay people who are unable to BE who they are.
delurker
@ewe: his usual hobby horses are that blacks are all homophobic, all gays are bisexual, and there is no risk for HIV infection from having unprotected anal sex.
at least he is branching out to different topics. progress?
IAbuseGays
@jason: I didn’t read your comment.
I am moving on because I agree with ewe that you have some real issues that you need to work and you are derailing the discussion of Choi’s brave move. All I can say to you is get some help.
I would rather discuss Choi’s bravery rather than your issues.
IAbuseGays
@ewe: What’s interesting to me is that the gay movement does need to be internationalize, just as the anti-gay movement is. People forget this but the same bigots in the U.S. are also going into places like Uganda to help spear head the “Kill the Gays” bill there. These domestic hate groups are not in fact domestic. They are international. They are just smart enough not to point out that they helping more radical agendas abroad. Ultimately the hate groups here would like nothing more than to re-criminalize being gay. Choi’s move reaffirms that this is an international struggle for human rights rather than one local to the U.S.
IAbuseGays
@M.: I don’t care what you found useful. My guess is that you are sock puppet. Now, can we actually discuss the value of seeing gay rights as international?
IAbuseGays
@M.: Well coming from an ego maniac like yourself, I am sure to really take that under advisement. So far, everything is you, you , you. Just like Jason in fact.
Keith
@Lawrence in Phoenix: Having grown up in Phoenix, and in consideration of the current climate in Arizona, I wouldn’t sit too comfortably on that premise. Here in the U.S., what keeps this from openly happening to us are the continued efforts of individuals coming together in strength as well as a system that has learned to tolerate us. I use that word, “tolerate” very seriously. We could be a just a few short elections away from having even that.
Tellin it like it is
I wonder why the messages haven’t been about a mob of white people hating the gays. Oh, I bet if this was Uganda. This webpage would have hundreds of messages stating how homophobic niggers are showing their true colors once again. But oh no, not barely a peep about those homophobic russian neo nazi honkeys and their hatred for “da gheys”. Fuck you Queerty. This website shut down only to come back from the dead….
Kev C
@Tellin it like it is: Dan Choi has never attended the Uganda gay pride march. Why is he avoiding it?
TheRealAdam
@Kev C: Are you suggesting that Choi is racist?
Kev C
@TheRealAdam: No, I’m saying if he protested in Uganda, he would be percieved as being racist and his career as gay superhero would be over.
Now don’t you feel foolish for answering troll questions?
IAbuseGays
@Kev C: Lord many of you are simply retarded.
(a) was dan invited to Uganda? He was invited to russia. We don’t know the answer to my question from you accusatory post. one of the reasons I suspect many of you are sock puppets is the absurdity of your posts.
(b) You do realize that he’s not white? I mean- I am black. He’s linked the gay movement to quotes by MLK, and MLK’s wife in a way that other gay gorups aren’t. He’s made the point that the gay movement to the anger of Gay Inc needs to be more inclusive of low income and minority gays such as myself. Do you know that? I don’t sense you do. YOu like the guy you are debating eithe ra complete retard or a sock puppet.
Lyndon Evans
Happy Memorial Day Lt. Choi
http://focusontherainbowopine.outloudblogs.com/2011/05/30/dan-choi-arrives-in-russia-and-becomes-the-conquering-gay-hero-to-his-lgbt-followers/
SayWhat
Dumb arse, people in the UK and USA can barley stand gay rights parades, Russia doesn’t mess around
ewe
@M.: M: What makes you think that the strategy of an entire people is to pander to homophobes and their fear of the day? Nothing is valid when you pick and choose to persecute one particular group on a topic that is universal.
ewe
Obama names new ambassador to Russia.
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/05/30/51019138.html
ewe
@M.: I am not interested in anything personally about you but your “stategy” if you want to call it that is to bring your personal shame into the forum as if it applies to all of us. It doesn’t. You got work to do on yourself. Good luck. If you plan on continuing to group all gay people as sex machines you can plan on people telling you your thinking is off the charts. Being gay is not between your legs and yes… YOU do indeed need to be told that. Mind your own damn business what other gay people are doing on their own personal journey. I don’t hear you bitchin about straight sex. Hypocrite.
ewe
@M.: Just in case you feel disoriented as to why i am addressing you let me be clear. The cause of homophobia is fear. PERIOD. Not fear of gay sex.
ewe
@M.: I could say the cause of homophobia is fear of intimacy with your own gender. that does not necessarily have to do with gay sex. Whatever gay sex is. Again, it boils down to fear. Just fear. You don’t get to use gay sex v. straight sex as a tool to oppress. It fosters giving permission to people to then say i want to marry my dog. So cut it out.
Derek Washington
@ngblog: Thank U! Michael has been living off the ghost of his dead friend for so long that he has lost his mind, IMHO. WTF does Obama have to do with this?
Derek Washington
@TheRealAdam: Dan is most certainly not Gay. The point is that if one Black person had thrown a pebble, the usual “ALL Blacks are homophobic” BS would have been all over this comment page. That is a fact.
I am not thrilled with Dan’s political leanings, however, that’s his perogative. I do, however, wish that he would aim his firepower here at home. I have a straight Asian friend who idolizes him because he has never had a masculine Asian to look up to who wasn’t a Kung Fu movie star. Dan could do just as much, if not more, right here.
ewe
Continuing to avoid identifying the straight white male by labeling every other person this or that is not the solution. fyi: notice who the tyrants are rounding up anyone perceived to be different.
IAbuseGays
@Derek Washington: What hte fuck are you talking about?
when he was working on issues domestically, there was whining. And now, when he’s also treating gay rights as it should be treated- an international issue- you whining.
I have to assume the point is to attack him.
ngblog
@IAbuseGays: Really? What exactly did Choi accomplish in Moscow? The last I checked, The Russian LGBT community is no better off now than they were prior to and during Moscow Pride. But we’re not having that discussion. This has been all about Chow and protecting his image.
Jeffree
Dan Choi’s went to Moscow because he was invited by the organizer (Alexeyev), who paid for his expenses.* Dan even expected to be arrested, per his tweets.
Adam Lambert was also there in Russia performing a concert, not marching or protesting. His expenses were paid too.*
Did activists in Uganda invite Choi (& Lambert) to work in their country?
*It’s unclear from what I read if Choi received pay in addition 2 expenses, Im not clear on Adam’s arrangements.
IAbuseGays
@Jeffree: Notice what they did? Once you point out that they are full of shit as to claiming Dan is a glory hound and other insults by actually pointing out what happened- that he was invited- the argument now morphs into more attempts to smear him.
ewe
@M.: that’s what i thought you were dealing with. You can overcome bigotry.
Paul Lynde
Dear Dan Choi: when you ripped up that dude’s pamphlet that he was about to give you at the Net Roots meeting, you said something that you acted out in tough love. Well I love you Dan, and I’m glad that you got your butt kicked in Russia. You were a guest in their country and you dissed your host. With love.