Nikolai Alexeyev – the main organiser of Moscow Gay Pride, editor in chief of the GayRussia website and general ‘thorn in the side’ of Mayor Luzhkov and the Moscow authorities – is making his first trip to America.

He has been invited by the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network as the keynote speaker at their ninth annual Matthew Shepard March on Saturday (October 6).

All the photographs in this photo story are courtesy Andy Thayer, a co-founder of Gay Liberation Network, which started life as the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network.

■ Nikolai Alexeyev takes-in the famous Chicago skyline.

■ There was, of course, the usual round of interviews to be done.  Above, with Jerome McDonald at Chicago Public Radio and an appearance on the Worldview programme.  Below, Nikolai is with Mitchell Szczepancyzk at WHPK-FM

■ Back to the ‘tourist bit’ ... with Bob Schwartz of Gay Liberation Network.

This evening, Gay Liberation Network is staging a fundraiser for the Organising Committee of Moscow Pride at Chicago’s LGBT resource center, the Gerber Hart Library, at 1127 W. Granville Street (7pm local time).  Video footage of Moscow Gay Prides in 2006 and 2007 is due to be screened.

Saturday’s Matthew Shepard March gets underway at 8pm on Saturday from the 7-11 parking lot, corner of Roscoe and Halsted Streets, Chicago.

Russian Activist at Fundraiser for Moscow Gay Pride  ►

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Chicago Public Radio - USA: 
Worldview:  The Perils of Gay Activism in Russia.  For the last two years Moscow’s Gay pride parade has ended with violence and arrests.  AUDIO:  Jerome McDonnell talks with Nikolai Alexeyev, gay rights activist and Moscow Gay Pride organiser, and Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network which is hosting Alexeyev's visit to Chicago for "Matthew Shepard March" on Saturday.