Gay pride parade ends without start in Moscow with vicious babushkas’ help

Russian gays and lesbians failed to organize a march in support of untraditional sexual orientation in Moscow yesterday. About 40 representatives of sexual minorities gathered near the building of the Moscow City Administration. They were “welcomed” by police units, hundreds of monarchists, radicals and bellicose babushkas. The organizers of the “satanic march” were arrested immediately and taken to nearest police stations. The rest of them were showered with eggs and empty bottles.

Photo: Gay pride parade ends without start in Moscow with vicious babushkas’ help

The Moscow government banned the gay pride parade in Russia’s capital for the second time. Nevertheless, homosexuals - both Russians and foreign individuals - were planning to take to the streets of Moscow on Sunday. Their adversaries held the so-called Russian March on Saturday. About 200 people (mostly nationalists and pensioners) gathered for the meeting holding slogans saying “Russia without Sodomites,” Down with Russophobes,” “For Russia Without Perverts,” “Buggery Not For Russians,” etc.

Moscow ’s Tverskaya Street was closed for traffic on Sunday morning. Special police units, hundreds of servicemen were expecting the homosexuals near the Moscow City Administration. About 200 Russian and foreign reporters were ready to witness the upcoming demonstration. Bellicose babushkas and young people gathered for the event too saying that they would never let homosexuals march on the streets of their city.

About 40 representatives of sexual minorities appeared on the scene at about 12 o’clock. They were supposed to collect signatures to sign a petition for Mayor Luzhkov to make the next gay pride parade in 2008 possible.

As soon as gay officials came out of their cars, they were arrested immediately. The reporters were left without sensational reports. Thirty-one people were detained in total. One of them was a homosexual activist, who attacked a British citizen, Peter Tatchell from Outrage! public organization. A young man attacked the foreigner and punched him in the eye. Mr. Tatchell called upon the British Foreign Office to react to the incident immediately.

An action of protest against the gay parade started in Moscow an hour later, at 1:00 p.m. About 30 people gathered at the square not far from the presidential administration. They promised to evict homosexuals from a park in Moscow downtown, where they traditionally meet.

Strana.ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov
Pravda.ru