catstevens
05-01-2006, 03:58 PM
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Protests cancel Moscow gay party
Monday, 1 May 2006, 12:07 GMT 13:07 UK
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41621000/jpg/_41621764_skins-afp-203body.jpg
Caption: Among the skinheads was one protester wearing a Nazi helmet
Protesters shouting homophobic slogans and hurling eggs and bottles have forced a Moscow night club to cancel a mass gay and lesbian party. Police kept back the crowd of at least 100 skinheads, nationalists and elderly religious protesters. No serious injuries were reported but revellers had to be turned away and police escorted those inside to safety. The incident comes weeks before Moscow authorities are due to rule on allowing the city's first Gay Pride parade. Organisers had been hoping to attract about 1,000 people to the "Open Party" at the Renaissance Event Club on Ordzhonikidze Street in the south of the Russian capital.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41621000/jpg/_41621778_chant-afp-203body.jpg
Caption: The party was billed as a unique mass gathering of gay Russians
However, just before 2200 (1800 GMT) on Sunday, as the final preparations were being made inside, protesters began gathering in the street. They included skinheads and elderly women carrying Russian Orthodox icons and crosses. Demonstrators chanted "Down with pederasts" and "No perverts here". An AFP correspondent reports that at least one party-goer was beaten by protesters before being rescued by police but there were no official reports of injuries.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41333000/jpg/_41333692_flag-203.jpg
Caption: Homosexual acts in Russia were punishable by prison terms of up to five years until 1993 - In Russian slang, a gay man is "blue" (goluboy) and a gay woman "pink" (rozovaya)
'Intimidation'
Party organisers say police numbers outside increased only gradually and there was anxiety inside as messages arrived by mobile phone about missiles being thrown at revellers trying to approach the club. However, the officers were praised by gay rights campaigners for preventing any serious violence. Special buses laid on took people from inside the club into Moscow city centre. Nikolai Alexeyev, one of the chief organisers of the Moscow Gay Pride, noted that the protest had caught the city authorities unawares, coming on the eve of the May Day holiday. It was, he said, a "mass, coordinated action aimed at intimidating Russian gays and lesbians". Igor Artyomov, a leader of the Nationalist RONS party, told AFP outside the club that the demonstration was a "peaceful" protest against "sin". Moscow's authorities have said they will ban the Pride parade, scheduled for 27 May, because of the public disorder it might provoke. A formal decision is not due until the middle of the month when the organisers submit their application for permission.
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4961986.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4961986.stm)
(AFP)
27 May 2006
Source (http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/May/theworld_May987.xml§ion=theworld&col=)
MOSCOW - Russian police stepped up patrols on Saturday in Moscow after homosexual groups said they would defy an order prohibiting a gay parade, raising concern of clashes with far-right nationalists who have vowed to block the “illegal and immoral” gathering, officials said. A city government spokesman quoted by the Interfax news agency said around 1,000 police officers would be on alert to prevent violence in the capital.He said they would be backed by around 700 special anti-riot police to make sure “any disorder will be strictly contained”.A district court on Friday upheld an earlier decision to prohibit the gay parade by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who said the march was morally “inadmissible” because people should not publicly display their “deviations in the sphere of organization of life and sex”.But at a press conference on Saturday, organizers called on their supporters, including a number of representatives of gay organizations from the United States, France and The Netherlands, to join in with two public demonstrations.The first was a call for activists to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beside the walls of the Kremlin, a symbolic choice that organizers said was meant to equate their fight against homophobia in Russia with the country’s World War II battle against Nazism.“Homophobia is part of the larger problem of xenophobia” in Russia today, Nikolai Alekseyev, head of the GayRussia rights group and an organizer of Saturday’s protest, said at the news conference. “This country defeated fascism and today it is again on the rise,” he said.
_________
New venue
__________
After laying flowers beside the Kremlin, organizers called on supporters to gather on a square around a kilometer (half a mile) away on a central avenue for a rally beside a memorial dedicated to Yury Dolgoruki, a Russian national hero of the 12th century.That gathering would likely either be prevented or quickly broken up by police since all public rallies in Moscow must receive formal authorization before taking place.Earlier in the week a Russian far-right nationalist group that has picketed gay parties in Moscow called on supporters to disrupt any gay march.“We call on all supporters of our ideas to unite... to prevent this type of illegal and immoral action,” said a statement published on the website of the Union of All Russians.Earlier this month, the group picketed two Moscow nightclubs where gay parties were scheduled to be held. Activists threw bottles and stones at party-goers. Several gay people were also beaten up near the clubs, organisers said.Homosexuality was considered a crime in Russia until 1993 and classified as a mental illness until 1999. Gay rights activists say that discrimination and homophobic violence may be on the increase.Police and protesters break up Moscow gay parade
(Reuters)Source (http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/May/theworld_May994.xml§ion=theworld&col=)
27 May 2006
MOSCOW - Russian police, militant Orthodox Christians and neo-fascists broke up a first ever gay rights march in Moscow on Saturday, but the homosexuals claimed their short-lived protest as a “great victory”. Activists led by 28-year-old Nikolai Alexeyev had planned to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -- a symbol of the World War Two struggle against fascism, and one of Russia’s most sacred places.But police closed the gates to the park where the eternal flame burns under the Kremlin walls, and a heavy scrum of women singing hymns and shaven-headed nationalists tried to charge into the gay activists as the march arrived.“This is a great victory, an absolute victory -- look at what’s happening,” Alexeyev said as he was dragged, bent almost double, away from the gates by two policemen.City authorities had banned the march, which they called an ”outrage to society”, while religious leaders from all major faiths condemned it. Interfax news agency reported police had detained around 100 people after the clashes.Even some rival gay activists said the march risked inflaming Russia’s widespread intolerance of homosexuality, and wished Alexeyev had chosen a less direct way to protest against discrimination and homophobia.Homosexuality was only decriminalised in Russia in 1993 and, although some gay clubs exist in big cities, same-sex couples almost never make a public display of their affections.
“Moscow is not sodom”
The marchers, who seemed to number about 40 although an exact count was impossible in the mob, were outnumbered at least twofold by men and women carrying Russian Orthodox icons and chanting “Moscow is not Sodom”.“We must stop them at this first stage, or they’ll come and corrupt our children,” said Kirill Bolgarin, 24, who had come to protest despite the pouring rain.His friend Andrei, 25, interrupted, and gestured at the eternal flame.“We are Russians. We are Orthodox. These soldiers died so we could live like Russians, not so these people could come here and tell us what to do,” he said.Alexeyev had invited gay activists from all across Europe to the march, the culmination of three days of events that were a first Russian attempt to hold a Gay Pride festival like those in Western cities.“We came here to lay flowers at this anti-fascist memorial, but the mayor is so terrified of us that he took the step of ordering the gates closed,” said Peter Tatchell from the British gay rights group OutRage.“As soon as we arrived we were set upon by fascist gangs and police. Today is a great shame for Russia because a peaceful protest has been suppressed.”Later, when police had formed a line between the two sides, a group of skinheads -- young Russian nationalists who have grown in number in recent years and have been behind a series of attacks on foreign students -- rushed towards the gay activists.Their faces masked, they threw flares as they ran, but OMON riot police stopped them and dragged them to waiting buses.Passers-by on the pavement outside parliament, which is on one of the capital’s main streets, looked on in disbelief.“I think it is a sexual abnormality, but if these gays want to do it, they should,” said Robert Antonov, 35. “Why shouldn’t they do what they like? They are people too.” Links:
Clashes erupt at Poland gay march, Homophobia is common in this Catholic country (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=163481)
Greece does not want gays in its armed forces (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157071)
Student Expelled After Revealing He's Gay On MySpace:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1528281/20060410/index.jhtml?headlines=true
Peace and love
Yours Sincerely,
Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens' latest threads (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/search.php?do=process&showposts=0&starteronly=1&exactname=1&searchuser=catstevens)
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Note: Silly (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2428493&postcount=11) , repeated, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2412839&postcount=14) (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style, if I'm not replying to your relevant post maybe because of this (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94500) , ask yourself: (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2428326&postcount=11) will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!
Protests cancel Moscow gay party
Monday, 1 May 2006, 12:07 GMT 13:07 UK
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41621000/jpg/_41621764_skins-afp-203body.jpg
Caption: Among the skinheads was one protester wearing a Nazi helmet
Protesters shouting homophobic slogans and hurling eggs and bottles have forced a Moscow night club to cancel a mass gay and lesbian party. Police kept back the crowd of at least 100 skinheads, nationalists and elderly religious protesters. No serious injuries were reported but revellers had to be turned away and police escorted those inside to safety. The incident comes weeks before Moscow authorities are due to rule on allowing the city's first Gay Pride parade. Organisers had been hoping to attract about 1,000 people to the "Open Party" at the Renaissance Event Club on Ordzhonikidze Street in the south of the Russian capital.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41621000/jpg/_41621778_chant-afp-203body.jpg
Caption: The party was billed as a unique mass gathering of gay Russians
However, just before 2200 (1800 GMT) on Sunday, as the final preparations were being made inside, protesters began gathering in the street. They included skinheads and elderly women carrying Russian Orthodox icons and crosses. Demonstrators chanted "Down with pederasts" and "No perverts here". An AFP correspondent reports that at least one party-goer was beaten by protesters before being rescued by police but there were no official reports of injuries.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41333000/jpg/_41333692_flag-203.jpg
Caption: Homosexual acts in Russia were punishable by prison terms of up to five years until 1993 - In Russian slang, a gay man is "blue" (goluboy) and a gay woman "pink" (rozovaya)
'Intimidation'
Party organisers say police numbers outside increased only gradually and there was anxiety inside as messages arrived by mobile phone about missiles being thrown at revellers trying to approach the club. However, the officers were praised by gay rights campaigners for preventing any serious violence. Special buses laid on took people from inside the club into Moscow city centre. Nikolai Alexeyev, one of the chief organisers of the Moscow Gay Pride, noted that the protest had caught the city authorities unawares, coming on the eve of the May Day holiday. It was, he said, a "mass, coordinated action aimed at intimidating Russian gays and lesbians". Igor Artyomov, a leader of the Nationalist RONS party, told AFP outside the club that the demonstration was a "peaceful" protest against "sin". Moscow's authorities have said they will ban the Pride parade, scheduled for 27 May, because of the public disorder it might provoke. A formal decision is not due until the middle of the month when the organisers submit their application for permission.
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4961986.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4961986.stm)
(AFP)
27 May 2006
Source (http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/May/theworld_May987.xml§ion=theworld&col=)
MOSCOW - Russian police stepped up patrols on Saturday in Moscow after homosexual groups said they would defy an order prohibiting a gay parade, raising concern of clashes with far-right nationalists who have vowed to block the “illegal and immoral” gathering, officials said. A city government spokesman quoted by the Interfax news agency said around 1,000 police officers would be on alert to prevent violence in the capital.He said they would be backed by around 700 special anti-riot police to make sure “any disorder will be strictly contained”.A district court on Friday upheld an earlier decision to prohibit the gay parade by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who said the march was morally “inadmissible” because people should not publicly display their “deviations in the sphere of organization of life and sex”.But at a press conference on Saturday, organizers called on their supporters, including a number of representatives of gay organizations from the United States, France and The Netherlands, to join in with two public demonstrations.The first was a call for activists to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beside the walls of the Kremlin, a symbolic choice that organizers said was meant to equate their fight against homophobia in Russia with the country’s World War II battle against Nazism.“Homophobia is part of the larger problem of xenophobia” in Russia today, Nikolai Alekseyev, head of the GayRussia rights group and an organizer of Saturday’s protest, said at the news conference. “This country defeated fascism and today it is again on the rise,” he said.
_________
New venue
__________
After laying flowers beside the Kremlin, organizers called on supporters to gather on a square around a kilometer (half a mile) away on a central avenue for a rally beside a memorial dedicated to Yury Dolgoruki, a Russian national hero of the 12th century.That gathering would likely either be prevented or quickly broken up by police since all public rallies in Moscow must receive formal authorization before taking place.Earlier in the week a Russian far-right nationalist group that has picketed gay parties in Moscow called on supporters to disrupt any gay march.“We call on all supporters of our ideas to unite... to prevent this type of illegal and immoral action,” said a statement published on the website of the Union of All Russians.Earlier this month, the group picketed two Moscow nightclubs where gay parties were scheduled to be held. Activists threw bottles and stones at party-goers. Several gay people were also beaten up near the clubs, organisers said.Homosexuality was considered a crime in Russia until 1993 and classified as a mental illness until 1999. Gay rights activists say that discrimination and homophobic violence may be on the increase.Police and protesters break up Moscow gay parade
(Reuters)Source (http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/May/theworld_May994.xml§ion=theworld&col=)
27 May 2006
MOSCOW - Russian police, militant Orthodox Christians and neo-fascists broke up a first ever gay rights march in Moscow on Saturday, but the homosexuals claimed their short-lived protest as a “great victory”. Activists led by 28-year-old Nikolai Alexeyev had planned to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -- a symbol of the World War Two struggle against fascism, and one of Russia’s most sacred places.But police closed the gates to the park where the eternal flame burns under the Kremlin walls, and a heavy scrum of women singing hymns and shaven-headed nationalists tried to charge into the gay activists as the march arrived.“This is a great victory, an absolute victory -- look at what’s happening,” Alexeyev said as he was dragged, bent almost double, away from the gates by two policemen.City authorities had banned the march, which they called an ”outrage to society”, while religious leaders from all major faiths condemned it. Interfax news agency reported police had detained around 100 people after the clashes.Even some rival gay activists said the march risked inflaming Russia’s widespread intolerance of homosexuality, and wished Alexeyev had chosen a less direct way to protest against discrimination and homophobia.Homosexuality was only decriminalised in Russia in 1993 and, although some gay clubs exist in big cities, same-sex couples almost never make a public display of their affections.
“Moscow is not sodom”
The marchers, who seemed to number about 40 although an exact count was impossible in the mob, were outnumbered at least twofold by men and women carrying Russian Orthodox icons and chanting “Moscow is not Sodom”.“We must stop them at this first stage, or they’ll come and corrupt our children,” said Kirill Bolgarin, 24, who had come to protest despite the pouring rain.His friend Andrei, 25, interrupted, and gestured at the eternal flame.“We are Russians. We are Orthodox. These soldiers died so we could live like Russians, not so these people could come here and tell us what to do,” he said.Alexeyev had invited gay activists from all across Europe to the march, the culmination of three days of events that were a first Russian attempt to hold a Gay Pride festival like those in Western cities.“We came here to lay flowers at this anti-fascist memorial, but the mayor is so terrified of us that he took the step of ordering the gates closed,” said Peter Tatchell from the British gay rights group OutRage.“As soon as we arrived we were set upon by fascist gangs and police. Today is a great shame for Russia because a peaceful protest has been suppressed.”Later, when police had formed a line between the two sides, a group of skinheads -- young Russian nationalists who have grown in number in recent years and have been behind a series of attacks on foreign students -- rushed towards the gay activists.Their faces masked, they threw flares as they ran, but OMON riot police stopped them and dragged them to waiting buses.Passers-by on the pavement outside parliament, which is on one of the capital’s main streets, looked on in disbelief.“I think it is a sexual abnormality, but if these gays want to do it, they should,” said Robert Antonov, 35. “Why shouldn’t they do what they like? They are people too.” Links:
Clashes erupt at Poland gay march, Homophobia is common in this Catholic country (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=163481)
Greece does not want gays in its armed forces (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157071)
Student Expelled After Revealing He's Gay On MySpace:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1528281/20060410/index.jhtml?headlines=true
Peace and love
Yours Sincerely,
Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens' latest threads (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/search.php?do=process&showposts=0&starteronly=1&exactname=1&searchuser=catstevens)
My sig (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1545148&postcount=5)
Note: Silly (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2428493&postcount=11) , repeated, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2412839&postcount=14) (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style, if I'm not replying to your relevant post maybe because of this (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94500) , ask yourself: (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2428326&postcount=11) will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!