Credits
News
© gayrussia.ru
"Would destroy morals"
Moscow bans gay pride march on Eurovision day
"Moscow has never had gay parades and it never will," said Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's spokesman, Sergei Tsoi. "Not only do they destroy morals within our society, but they consciously provoke disorder which threatens the lives of Muscovites and visitors."
Parade organizer and prominent gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseyev said on his website www.gayrussia.ru that the event would take place anyway.
"This is our right and it is guaranteed by the constitution. No official, including the Moscow mayor, has the right to violate it," Alekseyev said.
But Luzhkov's spokesman said any attempt to hold an unsanctioned gay parade would be "toughly stopped by law enforcement agencies in accordance with the law."
Luzhkov, who has been mayor of Moscow since 1992, once said gay parades were "a satanic act"
Russia did not decriminalize gay sex until 1993, two years after the Soviet Union's collapse, and intolerance is widespread.
Moscow has no gay-friendly district and the homosexual scene is still largely underground. Public displays of affection between same-sex couples are rare.
The gay parade, scheduled for May 16, was meant to coincide with Moscow's hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest. Activists had asked that competitors back homosexual rights on stage.
A Swiss-based Eurovision spokesman, currently in Moscow, declined to comment on the banning of the parade but said: "It's not a secret that we have a large gay audience and we respect everyone's backgrounds."
Related polls
- POLAND: Your favourite song in the national final?
- ARMENIA: Your favourite song in the national final?
- The Netherlands decided: How much do you like Ik be verliefd (Sha la lie)?
- Cyprus decided: How much do you like Life looks better in spring?
- Iceland decided: How much do you like Je ne sais quoi?
- Denmark decided: How much do you like In a moment like this?
- Norway decided: How much do you like My heart is yours?
Go directly to the reactions
Reactions
When reacting to a news item, please stick to the topic. Inappropriate messages (swearing, racism, hate, etc.), messages in other languages than English and spam (which includes URL advertising) will be deleted and you risk your account being removed. Reacting on newsitems is only possible when logged in as a member. Still don't have member account?
Click here to react Click here to become a member (free!)
Proof of how intolerant Russia is - they don't allow HIV positive foreigners into the country!
Despite that I would feel rather uncomfterable if Gays would make a parade in Moscow and ruin the evening, cause Russians are TOTALLY against gays and who knows what would happen there -_-'''
If Russia would also bann gays watching Eurovision, i think 50 % of viewers, who watch ESC, would decrease, cause ESC is a gay-event as I heard lol
It takes centuries to cultivate "western" civilizations. Russia just made a huge leap backwards... to feudal society of insecurity and perceived righteousness. No stage lights or Bentleys on the street can cover up the basic truth that Russia has still a long way to go.
@ Mario
Absolutely agree. By the way, Svetlana Loboda’s social initiative is «NO FAMILY VIOLENCE».
Vote for Ukraine! 
People of all sexual preferences can feel free in this country.
@ Layla
If you're more worried about a contest than human rights, you have a serious problem.
Anyway, I think both events could run in their respective ways.
@ Oleg
Totally agree. The best family for bring up children is that love and respect them. I knew many religious and traditional families where the father harmed his wife and his children. Is it better than a gay family or a monoparental one where children are loved and respected??
@Oleg Ryasik:
"it is very easy to be good and kind when you are not attracted"... Is it?
@ john
I was not talking about religious marriage but civil marriage. In Spain or Belgium, mainly Catholic, it's totally impossible to get married by Church if you're a gay couple.
But, at least here, the valid one is the civil marriage, not the religious. So we don't care about how priests think.
I know Danish civil unions are de facto equal to Spanish or Dutch same-sex marriages. The only difference is the name of the concept. I believe Denmark was pioneer in 1989 and maybe to call it "marriage" at the same level of a traditional straight marriage was still too shocking. The first country that used the same name for any marriage regardless sex was the Netherlands in 2001.
It's possible that Denmark and Iceland (I think the new government wants to do it) will "upgrade" the concept of gay civil unions to same-sex marriage (as Sweden did last month) very soon. France and UK are in the same way, probably Germany too.
But I'm really worried about many EU countries like Italy, Malta, Ireland or Poland hasn't made any law about minimal recognition of gay couples. Not to talk about CIS countries...
this is absolute terrible....typical of a backwards eastern government to do something like this. on one hand im not very surprised, but on the other i find it absolutely disgusting. this just makes me more glad that i live in Australia, somewhere where we have more freedoms and rights than some other places.
sounds like Russia is back in the early 1900's
I totally agree with Lina but Layla has a point. It has the potential to get very nasty, I just hope if they do go ahead with the parade that it happens away from the stadium...
@ Hr. Incorrect
So we step by step are approaching to the biggest mystery of the world called love
I may care about my car and is this love? Of course, it is very easy to be good and kind when you are not attracted.
But if you really interested in the essence of this phenomenon, let me advise you to read Plato's Feast (A Poem with an Advance). On my mind, nobody has written better about the essence of love.
Sexual or any attraction has nothing to do with love! Love is actually when you care about someone you doesn't feel attracted to.
Love is not romantic, it's realistic!
@ Lazy Lover
As for me any person or persons independently from sexual orientation may make a child happy but under one condition: the child should feel love. And this will be the best option. So I cannot see any advantages of «usual heterosexual family». Any opinions dedicated by social majority or church are not arguments. They (social majority and church ) proved to be wrong so many times in the past...
@Layla gays desite to make gay pride that time just to show to the other countreys how Russia use gays, if u want visit that site to see what happen last year in gay pride http://direland.type(...)moscow_police_a.html
Doesn't Russia realise how big a gay following ESC has??
I don't see the problem here. Why can't they find another day to provoke people on? Why now so close to ESC only to ruin the fun for us other people? Because that's what will happen. There will be problems following; media attention, politics, discussions, hate... General hate. So why use ESC for this? Don't ruin the fun! Wait til afterwards at least.
it's out of the point of the article, but anyway...
@Oleg
Do you think that homosexual couple is better option to bring up children than usual heterosexual family with latent gay-father? I think second is better!
Miloš,
Thanks for Russian.
But believe me that very many homosexuals in Ukraine (including me) have their own children (who are as a rule heterosexual by the way) and they are very good fathers and mothers.
even here in Malta we have a gaypride and its allowed although very few people do go for this walk...........at least if i want i can go ...oki we still have no RIGHTS......maybe that will be the next step.....but marraige rights are a far cry.... thanks to the church in malta
A rule of esctoday.com is that all messages must be in English only.
Moderated by: Laura Gudim at Fri 8 May 2009 23:33:22
Miloš,
You write that ESC is contest for all, for us too, for people with RIGHT sexual orientation.
Who told you that one sexual orientation is right and the other one is not?
Who do you think you are? God created this world like it is but you think that some things are right and some ones are not. Please just think over it!
That's not the point, Milos and Diego. This parade is not organized to claim the ESC for gay people, its purpose is no more than to claim equal rights,so that they can live their lives as everyone else does.
It's disgusting to see that some people are allowed to write their intolerant and abusive messages here, and I really wonder whether the editors of this website had better remove inappropiate reactions or even remove the article altogether.
Gay Organizations should understand that
they do not need to hang on ESC to expose their claims. In the real conditions of Russian society that is a risk that nobody outside of their organizations should run.
tks RUS well done !!!
.jpg)
Lets hope that Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, UK etc WIN IT this year.
Mario Mir:
Here in Denmark we have exactly the same rights as those in a "real" marriage.
Our constitution says; that no law can tell the church what to do and vice verca. The two are complitly seperate. But the Church actually let the individual priest decide if he wants to marry gays. But to make it legal we still have to go a city hall.
@ john
The main difference is that countries with same-sex marriage have only one legislation about marriage, regardless the sex of the couple.
Countries with civil unions have two laws: one for marriage and one for those unions. It could happen, like Denmark or Iceland, that both laws could give the same rights or maybe not, or both could change in different ways in the future.
Gay movements consider that same-sex marriage gives total equality gay couples-straight couples while civil unions still keep a difference, although it could be simply symbolical.
@ eurovizz
You're wrong. Spain gave it in 2005 while Norway did the same in 2006.
The list of 185 reactions is divided into 7 pages. Choose a page:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
React yourself
This news article is older than one week. Reacting to articles is only possible in the first week after publication.
