OK, kiddo! Here are all the fantastically amazing posts tagged with Moscow

Moscow Keeps Ban On Gay Rights Marches

December 12th, 2008

No irony here.

Moscow’s mayor Yuri Luzhkov has vowed to continue bans on gay rights marches, calling homosexuality “satanic,” and blaming the gay rights movement for the spread of AIDS:

We have banned, and will ban, the propaganda of sexual minorities’ opinions because they can be one of the factors in the spread of HIV infection.

What a unique and simple strategy to help stop a worldwide AIDS epidemic: Ban opinions!

Sadly, all attempts at gay rights rallies in Moscow have been met with violence, with no police protection afforded for the marchers. While Canada’s rallies are, thankfully, far more peaceful, Yuri’s sentiment is still very close to home. Plans for a small parade in Abbotsford, British Columbia, was met with wild criticism and had to be changed to something smaller.

Russian Church Purifies River After Gay Cruise

June 29th, 2007

Gay Filter

The Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods, a religious group in Russia, has completed a ceremonial procession along the Moscow River to purify the waters after a gay cruise ship sailed down it the previous day.

Event organiser Yuri Ageshchev said the religious ceremony was necessary to protect a sared site:

[We aim] to clean the Moscow River of the filth that filled the river after the trip of a big company of homosexuals that took place on the same route and on the same motor ship.

[Gays] boldly demonstrate their non-traditional orientation, persuading everyone that it is normal. We believe that it is a vice and want to remove all this from this site, which is sacred to Russians.

Hmm… I wonder if this has any connection to the Rasputin-esque guy that has been sprinkling holy water over my favourite paths lately.

Moscow’s Violent Anti-Gayness

May 29th, 2006

What a lovely place...

Even moose and squirrel must be shaking their heads at this news. Moscow’s first gay pride parade, which was to peacefully conclude by placing flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, was met by hordes of violent protesters who started punching and kicking the participants. What’s even sadder, the authorities did little to stop the violence, instead condemning the parade. The mayor and courts even banned the march, citing, well… nothing, really.

Canadian gay rights activist, John Fisher, was there.

What I saw was a complete failure of police protection that was directly linked to the mayor’s banning of the march. We can only hope that what we saw was representative of only a small segment of society.

Of course, there’s not much joking I can do with this shameful material, so I’ll conclude by congratulating the pride marchers for taking a stand against such nonsense, and I wish them all the best next year! Don’t give up!