Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has as much
as warned gay pride organizers not to stage their May 16 gay pride
and march celebration planned to coincide with the finale of the
Eurovision song contest to be held in the city, reports the Interfax
news agency.
During a Wednesday press conference
Luzkhov said, “Sexual minorities, they are free. We do not allow
gay parades. ... Entertain yourself, no problem, but not on the
streets, squares, marches and demonstrations. We never introduced
any limitations in their [gays and lesbians] respect except public
actions.”
Luzkhov spoke just hours after Moscow
officials had presented symbolic keys to representatives of the
Eurovision song contest.
The mayor is not issuing empty threats;
he has denied gay activists a march license since 2006.
Last June, a small
group of protesters led by gay rights leader Nikolai Alexeyev
(sometimes spelled Alekseev) held pride flags and banners outside the
famed Tchaikovsky music conservatory, in defiance of Luzhkov's ban of
the event. They chanted, “No to homophobia,” and “Tchaikovsky
was gay.” A second demonstration was held at a building in front
of Moscow City Hall where a banner was hung reading “Rights For
Gays and Lesbians – homophobia of Mayor Luzhkov to be prosecuted.”
Both events lasted only minutes before the police arrived.
Four gay activists
were arrested after they had fled the demonstration. Witnesses at
the scene told ukgaynews.org.uk that the police forced their way into
an apartment where they had barricaded themselves by breaking down
the door. The four members were held in custody overnight and
charged with “taking part in an unsanctioned demonstration and for
not obeying an order from the police.”
Moscow gay
activists now appear headed for yet another clash with officials in
May.
“Gay pride public
action during the final of Eurovision will take place in any
circumstances,” Alexeyev told gayrussia.ur. “We are not going to
surrender our right to freedom of assembly and expression because it
is given to us not by Mayor Luzhkov, but by the Constitution of this
country.”
Earlier in the
month, Luzhkov shocked the world when just days after World AIDS Day
he linked the gay rights movement to the spread of HIV.
“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,” the
mayor said at a December 4 conference in Moscow titled HIV/AIDS in
Developed Countries.