Slavic Gay Pride Organisers
Appeal to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko
MINSK, May 7, 2010 (GayRussia)
–
Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus, was asked yesterday to intervene in the process of consideration of the application for the Slavic Pride
march planned for May
15.
In a
letter, from Belarusian and Russian gay activists, also asked the President
to back the recognition of
International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia in Belarus.
“We, activists of human rights projects GayBelarus.By and GayRussia.Ru,
appeal to you with a request of facilitating the authorisation
proceedings for our human rights and information campaign Slavic Gay Pride
2010, as our application for holding this action, which is planned on May
15, 2010, is being considered in the Minsk city executive committee for more
than two months,”
the letter starts.
Organisers stressed that Slavic Gay Pride 2010 has a goal of informing the
public about unequal treatment, discriminated position of gays, lesbians,
bisexuals and transgender people in the territories
of both
of Belarus and Russia,
and aims to sensitise
the public, politicians and media to the issue of the homosexuals.
It
iss
no secret that the human rights rally in support of sexual minorities, who
de facto are equal citizens of the country, were repeatedly banned in Moscow,
the letter states before pointing out that on
May 5, Baltic Gay Pride was banned in Vilnius, despite the fact that
Lithuania is a member of the European Union”.
The letter to Belarusian President says that “we do not want to shock the
audience or to stage erotic performances and cross-dressing actions on the
streets, we are not going to undermine the morality of society.
“Moreover,
we believe that this event will positively respond to the country’s
image, as same-sex relationships are not prosecuted in Belarus and
homosexuality was removed from the list of mental disorders by the World
Health Organization in 1990.
Consequently,
the citizens of homosexual orientation should have the same rights as the
heterosexual ones.”
The activists paid attention to the fact that “human rights information
campaign is timed to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia
and Transphobia, which is celebrated in
many
countries on May 17.
“In
this regard, we ask you to consider including the International Day Against
Homophobia and Transphobia in the list of days celebrated and marked in the
national calendar of the Republic of Belarus”.
The activists concluded
by pointing out that by organising
Slavic Gay Pride 2010,
they “
just want to prove that Belarus is rightly
regarded in other countries
as a tolerant and welcoming country”.
“Slavic Gay Pride” movement was founded in autumn