17 Activists Arrested Under St. Petersburg 'Gay Propaganda' Ban for Carrying Rainbow Flags: VIDEOS
Seventeen activists have been arrested in a May Day civil rights and freedom march, Coming Out St. Petersburg reports:
This year's May 1st march is a peaceful demonstration, permitted by the city administration. LGBT activists were marching as part of a larger "democratic" column, consisting of various democratic and civil society groups of St. Petersburg. 5 minutes into the march, police requested removal of rainbow flags. When activists refused, they were forcefully detained and are now facing charges of "propaganda of homosexuality" and non-compliance with the police. One activist was detained for holding a sign "homophobia is illegal."
17 activists are still being held by the police. Among those detained are Igor Kochetkov, chairman of the Russian LGBT Network, Mikhail Belodedov of Coming Out, Sergey Kondrashov, lawyer and straight ally, and Elena Popova, director of St. Petersburg organization "Soldier's mothers", defending rights of draftees.
Video of the scuffle and detentions which I located on YouTube, AFTER THE JUMP...
The recently-passed so-called "gay propaganda" law which bars (and imposes fines for) gay groups, gay books and periodicals, LGBT Pride events, and other "promotion" of homosexuality, is being considered in Moscow, and federally.
These people, like their compatriots in Africa and Asia, are so damn brave. How can we best support them?
Posted by: DavidGroff | May 1, 2012 11:13:21 AM
A generation removed from a 70 plus year stint with Marxism and contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe are the result? So it's safe to say Marxism is a failure and human nature always triumphs in the end? How many people were murdered [over 100 million world-wide?] and suffered to figure this out?
Posted by: ratbastard | May 1, 2012 11:20:22 AM
And, still the gay Atlantis cruise is headed to St Petersburg, Russia.
Why are we spending gay dollars supporting these homophobes both in Russia and the Caribbean?
Posted by: Continuum | May 1, 2012 11:30:43 AM
The interesting thing is that after the arrests, MORE people took up the rainbow flags, and put on rainbow ribbons, and chanted things like "one for all and all for one" and "homophobia is illegal."
More clips here
http://gay.ru/news/rainbow/2012/05/01-23409.htm
Posted by: KevinVT | May 1, 2012 11:54:09 AM
this reminds me of the reports from early 1930's Germany, and the crackdown on the Jews by the Germans
Posted by: Disgusted American | May 1, 2012 12:10:54 PM
@Disgusted American,
The Marxist-Communists also persecuted homosexuals and other 'undesirables'.
I was on a subway train a few days ago and an obviously gay [flaming] gay man got on wearing a Che t-shirt. Honestly, I wanted to 'bash' him for his stupidity.
Posted by: ratbastard | May 1, 2012 12:44:19 PM
no...no...not on my watch...we MUST get something going...St.Pete's MUST´be bombarded from all corners...not just from Russians but from every free man and woman on the planet..Russia purports to be a modern state yet tolerates drakonian morality on paper while their leaders engage in every kind unethical behavious reminiscent of every previous dictatorship...this is merely a political manoevre meant to distract the population from the real issues facing the country...disgusting, indeed!
Posted by: Daniel Moreau | May 1, 2012 2:50:28 PM
21st century heroes!!
Posted by: jack | May 1, 2012 5:07:48 PM
Spreading satanic filth of Sodom worldwide. Good in Russia, fags got busted.
Posted by: Igor | Apr 29, 2013 2:20:30 PM