Moscow Fined For Banning Pride
The city of Moscow has been fined €29,510 by the European Court of Human Rights for banning equal rights demonstrations in the city.
For several consecutive years, former mayor Yuri Luzhkov had banned gay Pride marches, calling them “satanic.” (I must’ve missed the year that the parade featured a live goat sacrifice.) When organizers ignored the bans, police did nothing to protect marchers from violent protestors, often hauling off the marchers in handcuffs instead.
Like many other parts of the world, the Council of Europe guarantees the rights of citizens to gather for peaceful protests. In light of this, the court ruled that Moscow couldn’t simply ban gay Pride marches simply because they don’t like gays.
The decision, incidentally, came on the same day that Yuri Luzhkov was replaced as mayor. He was fired by President Dmitry Medvedev in September after 18 years as mayor.
Comeuppance! I always wanted to use that word.
