Another setback for Moscow gays

A Moscow court on Sept. 4 ruled that the city acted properly when it refused to grant a permit to an LGBT group for a demonstration in May. It was the latest in a series of defeats in court of gay activists in the Russian capital. Moscow police arrested about 20 people on May 27, as they attempted to present a petition denouncing a decision to bar a gay pride parade in the city. The court rejected arguments that the Russian constitution guaranteed gays the right of assembly. An attempt to challenge the impartiality of the judge was also rejected. LGBT rights advocated Nikolai Alekseyev told the Interfax news agency that gay groups behind the pride march would seek a cease and desist order against the city at the European Court of Human Rights. Among those detained during the May demonstration were Alexeyev and a number of foreign supporters including British gay advocate Peter Tatchell and two European lawmakers. They and about 100 other people gathered in a park across from the office of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to collect signatures for the petition which already had been signed by about 40 members of the European Parliament. Waiting for them were members of extreme right nationalist groups, Russian Orthodox churchgoers, and young militants. The crowd pelted the gay group with eggs and started a number of skirmishes until police moved in arresting the gay leaders. A woman threw a bottle of water on Tatchell and then a young man in military fatigues hit him in the head. The British rights leader was led away by police. Police were accused of doing nothing to stop the angry mob. Earlier in May Mayor Luzhkov refused to grant a parade permit for the gay march. It was not unexpected. He had denounced the parade for several months and it was the second year in a row that the march was banned. A month earlier a Moscow court tossed out a lawsuit by Alekseyev and other activists accusing Lushkov of libel over claims he made that gay rights marches were "satanic." The court ruled that Moscow Pride leaders had failed to prove that the remarks were incendiary or intended to vilify gays in general. In January during a Kremlin meeting before leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church Lushkov said that gay rights marches were "satanic." The speech was broadcast on Moscow television. Lushkov then went on to blast gay unions. "Some European nations bless single-sex marriages and introduce sexual guides in schools," Lushkov said in the speech broadcast on Moscow television. "Such things are a deadly moral poison for children." Moscow Pride called Lushkov's remarks a "smear campaign" against gays and lesbians and filed the lawsuit. Last year, Lushkov refused to give a permit for the gay parade citing security concerns. Despite the ban, marchers attempted to hold a parade. Police quickly moved in arresting marchers and counter protestors. Most of the 200 people detained were gay. Charges against them were later dropped.