Posted on 05/27/2006 10:02:35 AM PDT by Lukasz
Moscow - Moscow police on Saturday arrested around 120 people during an unsanctioned gay rights demonstration at which a German MP was injured in a scuffle with right-wing activists.
Municipal authorities had banned a planned gay and lesbian parade through the capital despite a court appeal by organizers who pledged to hold a rally regardless.
Around two dozen gay activists mounted an initial protest in front of the city hall where violence ensued as other groups of citizens reportedly including right-wing radicals tried to break up the gathering.
Police units then moved on the crowd and made numerous arrests. Up to 200 other protesters also moved along the city's Tverskaya main street.
Volker Beck, a member of the German Bundestag who took part in the event, was punched in the face in a clash with alleged extremists. Police stood back during the violence, he said.
'There was no aggression from our side, we were simply there,' Beck told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 'It is unacceptable that the police offer no protection to gays on the streets.'
The politician was detained in the fracas and kicked into a police bus. He was released with an apology when officers saw his parliamentary credentials.
City authorities were unrelenting at the hard line taken by police. Gay protesters had acted provocatively, said Sergei Tsoi, spokesman for Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who had banned the event.
Smoke canisters were tossed and signal flares fired, prompting police retaliation, Tsoi said.
Gay activists were also detained approaching the Alexander Garden by the Kremlin wall, where police prevented them from laying wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Most of those detained were later released, law enforcement officials said.
Riot police also clashed with groups of presumed right-wing extremists and made some 50 arrests as they approached the gathering.
About 120 drivers also took part in a gay car rally in a western Moscow suburb.
A spokesperson for the Duma lower house of parliament called the gay protest a 'provocation' and praised the actions of the police.
Mayor Luzhkov claimed earlier that 99 per cent of Muscovites supported the ban on the event. While European countries were more accepting of the gay community, a parade was impermissible in Russia for 'moral and ethical considerations,' according to the mayor.
'One should not demonstrate publicly his deviations from the norm in the organisation of life and sex,' he said.
A senior leader of Russia's Muslims had also opposed the event, saying that participants should be 'given a thrashing.'
Homosexuality was considered a crime in the Soviet Union and was only legalized in independent Russia in 1993.
According to activists, the country still suffers from state sanctioned gay rights abuses, while gays and lesbians face broad public intolerance.
Homrades
Did he get T-bagged?
Dieter: Would you like to touch my monkey?
Guest: I would be honored to.
Dieter: Touch him! Love him! Liebe meine abschmenkee!
Dieter: Now I am as happy as a little girl.
The very BEST NEWS of this week.
Therefore: Three times a HIP HIP HOORAY from Germany. He went there to get some spanking ... he got some spanking. The only trouble is: This pervert probably enjoyed it.
From a story on Fox News:
"Moscow is not Sodom!" they shouted. Women wearing head scarves held up religious icons while men in Cossack dress — white sheepskin hats and black-and-red tunics — stood by.
...
Shortly before the rally was to have begun, scores of apparently nationalist youths raced toward the site, waving and throwing flares into Moscow's main avenue, Tverskaya. By the start time of the rally, more than 100 youths were standing in the square opposite the mayor's office, chanting: "Glory to Russia!"
"I came here to express my opposition to the gay parade. The authorities didn't allow them and they came here anyway," said a 22-year-old nationalist who gave his name only as Oleg.
Police tried to clear the square but more showed up. Several trampled on a rainbow-colored ribbon — a symbol of gay rights — into the ground.
"This is a perverts' parade," said one protester holding an icon of the Madonna, a woman who gave only her first name, Irina. "This is filth, which is forbidden by God. We have to cleanse the world of this filth."
As a Green member of Germany's Bundestag, Volker Beck, was giving an interview before TV cameras, about 20 nationalist youths surrounded him and pummeled him, bloodying his nose. Volker Eichler, a gay activist from Berlin who witnessed the beating, said police did not intervene.
"What happened today unfortunately is representative of the non-respect for human rights in Russia. You can't express your point of view, and you are not protected from extremists," said French gay activist Sebastien Maria.
Saturday is the 13th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Russia, and a number of foreign activists traveled to Moscow this week for an unprecedented forum on gay rights in Russia.
City authorities cited the potential for violence as the primary reason for banning the parade. But they also voiced disproval of the very idea of gay rights.
Luzhkov, the mayor, said in a radio interview Friday that gay parades "may be acceptable for some kind of progressive, in some sense, countries in the West, but it is absolutely unacceptable for Moscow, for Russia."
"As long as I am mayor, we will not permit these parades to be conducted," he said.
The issue has split Moscow's gay community, many of whom say that Russian society is still too conservative and that a parade would only provoke more violence from skinheads and radical groups.
Approximately 5-8 percent of Russia's 143 million-strong population is gay and lesbian, according to gay rights activists.
According to Mark Steyn, Russia's population is in a death spiral, and sanctioning homosexuality is certainly not going to help them pull out of it.
I read that group of German MPs plan to visit Warsaw for similar „rally“. Some might say that they have nothing to do in Germany…
True but they don’t sanction homosexuality.
No. Obviously not. Some will blame them for not.
exteremist: n. 1. one who does anything but accept insult and injury from lesser beings 2. a conservative or person of religious faith, or both
Well said. It's like a group of people saying, we WILL pick our nose in front of you, and if you so much as cringe, we will make trouble for you. Then, when people have had enough and bop em in the nose, they seem like victims and get more of what they want until everyone is afraid of not smiling as the nosepickers get in their faces.
City authorities were unrelenting at the hard line taken by police. Gay protesters had acted provocatively, said Sergei Tsoi, spokesman for Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who had banned the event.
Gay protesters had acted provocatively
Quote of the day?
LOL
Was Barney Frankenwhine caught too?
Oh, yeah? Prove it!
"'One should not demonstrate publicly his deviations from the norm in the organisation of life and sex,' he said."
Makes a whole lot of sense to me. The inner deep guilt of the Gays/Lesbians drives them to seek public acceptance of their perversions. They deny this but are blind to it as well. Keep your sexual practices private...IMO.
As long as they're making up the numbers as they go along, they could at least be consistent about it.
"I personally have absolutely nothing against anyone who is gay, as long as they don't flaunt it in front of anyone who happens to be near them. Mentally healthy people do not flaunt their sexuality. It is a private and intimate thing, which is what it is supposed to be."
I have to agree with you. It's mostly genetic: around 3-5% of the population is homosexual or bisexual with strong homosexual tendencies. So it doesn't make much sense to publicly "not sanction" homosexuality as it doesn't make these 3-5% straight. (Another 3-5% of the population is mostly asexual. Some 500 years ago these two groups made up the bulk of the monks and nuns, so it's not like it's a new phenomenon.).
The problem I see with the American gay community is that they try to turn something that is basically a "civil rights" issue into a cultural thing. If they adopted a more reasonable approach concentrating on legitimate claims like inheritance rights (After all, if pets and Anna Nicole Smith can inherit, why shouldn't a partner of 30 years enjoy the same priviledges?) or power of attorney, instead of going after gay marriage, the whole "gay agenda" issue wouldn't be much of an issue after all.
Ironically, the mayors of Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg, are gay: Klaus Wowereit (SPD) of Berlin is a completely tasteless buffoon who for example thinks that it's a mayors duty to write welcome adresses to some fetish festivals (homo- and heterosexual). He is best known for not leaving out any gala reception, film premiere, museum opening or any other kind of party where there's free champagne.
Ole von Beust of Hamburg (CDU) on the other hand doesn't mention his sexuality at all. Even when another politician (Schill) tried to blackmail von Beust threatening to publicly denounce him as a homosexual, von Beust declined to make any public statements. Ironically it was von Beust's father who gave a newspaper interview (without his son's prior knowledge) praising von Beusts first boyfriend ("What a charming young man!"), to get the issue off the table.
Talk about a difference in style.
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