... But they get dates wrong as they try to whip-up objections
 

■  Inna Svyatenko: “... a gay parade definitely contradicts the national cultural tradition.”

MOSCOW, January 31, 2006  –  A number of news internet sites in Russia have started what appears to be a campaign against Moscow’s LGBT Festival and Gay Pride.  Some reports suggest that the festival and Pride Parade will take place on May 24, a day considered as a ‘religious holiday’ in Russia.

While Saints Kirill and Mefodiy Day is indeed on May 24, the Moscow Pride Parade – the first-ever in Russia – is scheduled for Saturday May 27.

Gay activist Nikolai Alekseev, one of the organisers of Moscow Pride and Festival, said today that he was “outraged” as this “intentionally false information being circulated” to link the Festival and a religious festival in Russia.

“We checked the calendar of religious events well in advance and there are no religious events on the days of the festival,” he said.  “The IDAHO [International Day Against Homophobia] conference of will take place on May 26 and 27 and the Pride March will be on the afternoon of May 27.”

Alekseev added that “we have no intention to clash with religious organisations. But they also have to recognize our constitutional rights”.

One of the Russian web sites, Km.Ru, today posted comments by Moscow City Duma deputy Inna Svyatenko, member of Moscow Duma commission on health and protection of public health – and asked readers for comments on what she said.

“Until recently, such a wording of the questions was not possible in Russia,” the website reports Ms. Svyatenko as saying.  “Homosexuals, for instance, were criminally prosecuted.  They were obliged to live in the closet.  Today there is no more prosecution.

“In western countries there are gay parades, because sexual liberty became part of culture.  But I am stress it, western culture,” she pointed out.

“With the staging of a gay parade in Russia, things are not so easy.  I am categorically against the mischievous playing with the public’s feelings  – and the simple-hearted naivety of the organizers of the parade in deciding to stage such an event in Moscow.

“Moscow is not Amsterdam, Brussels, Manchester or Tel Aviv,” she said.  “Do [gay men and women] want sympathy and understanding or scandal?  If scandal, then they are managing to get it.

“It is absolutely clear that gays will have to face aggressive crowd.  And the thing is that the aggression will not only come from skinheads and youth groups.  It is simply that gay culture in our country is marginal.

“I suppose there will be quite a number of older Muscovites for whom gay parade will be a challenge and insult.”

Ms. Svyatenko went on to say that Russian culture is very traditional and conservative when it comes to sexual issues.

“This is the reality that we have to take into account,” she went on.  “And a gay parade definitely contradicts the national cultural tradition.

“Public opinion in Russia is not so tolerant to once again break it.  I doubt this action will bring dividends to gays themselves.”

And she cited a 2005 public opinion poll carried out by VZIOM which found that 30 percent of Russians wanted gays to be isolated.

“The celebration on May 27 of the decriminalisation of homosexual prosecution risks becoming a pitiful slaughter,” she suggested.  “Whatever security is put in place for the parade and whatever forces are brought, it will hardly be possible to avoid problems.

“A good example is the parades in Warsaw and Riga.  Despite the protests, the actions took place.  The marchers of the parade were covered with eggs and some were beaten.

“And, by the way, the mayors of these two cities were against the parades, but were powerless to do anything.

“I share the position of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov that we should not allow a gay parade in Moscow,” she concluded.  “There are clubs, there are big halls.  There are probably other formats to conduct the forum.  Is it so important to wave six coloured flag of ‘minorities’ on Vasilyevski Spusk [next to Red Square]?”

Similar sentiments were said by former Moscow Duma deputy Evgeniy Balashov last summer.  He was also categorically against the conduct of gay pride in Moscow.

But in the position of Inna Svyatenko, there appears to be some clear progress.  While she thinks that there should be no public ‘appearance’ of gays on the streets of Moscow, she admits that the ‘forum of sexual minorities’ could take place in a “big hall”.

This shows that the only stumbling block for the Moscow authorities is the march on the streets and not the conference of the International Day against homophobia, cultural program with the participation of the grandson of Oscar Wilde Merlin Holland and an appearance of French singer Desireless.

Mr. Alekseev admitted that organisers knew from the beginning that the most difficult aspect of Pride would be the parade itself.

“But this is our constitutional right and we are not going to easily surrender,” he said.

“It is amazing that those elected by the people can easily make such remarks about a sizeable group of people and not being prosecuted for it.”

“Our project will continue to fight for amendments in Russian legislation banning discrimination and hate speech towards gays and lesbians,” he pledged.

Earlier today, Pride organisers contacted the internet news portal Km.Ru and expressed its view concerning the false information about the dates of the festival.  One of the authors of the article Vasily Vankov said that he “will pass on the information to his management”.

■ Translated from the original Russian article on GayRussia.ru

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