Second Gay Man Murdered in Russia Within a Month

A group of Russian villagers have killed a 39-year-old man in the Russian region of Kamchatka for being gay in the second fate hate crime in Russia in recent weeks, AFP reports:

The suspects, three men in the village of Zaporozhye, allegedly killed a man on Wednesday "because their fellow villager had a non-traditional sexual orientation," the Investigative Committee said in a statement, using a euphemism for gay.

"The victim died at the scene from his injuries. Then the suspects tried to cover up the crime by putting the body in his car, pouring on petrol and setting it alight," investigators said.

The three men have been detained.

Even though the investigators confirmed that the attack was believed to have been driven by homophobia, in a rare admission from officials on the sensitive issue in Russia, the suspects are being investigated for murder, not for a hate crime.

The victim was the deputy director of a local airport.

RIA Novosti adds:

Officials reported on Friday holding a 21-year-old employee of a fisheries firm in connection with the killing, but did not at that time mention a possible motive for the crime.

The incident is not the first suspected hate crime against gay men in recent weeks in Russia. Last month, investigators in the southern city of Volgograd opened a probe into the death of a 23-year-old man, whose body was covered with various injuries.

Reuters reports:

"Now the deputy director of an airport has been killed in Kamchatka. Because he was gay. And it's going to get worse," Nikolai Alexeyev, Russia's most prominent gay rights activist, said on Twitter.

Critics say the bill would effectively ban gay rights rallies and events. Alexeyev has said it is part of a "homophobic policy" that is giving Russians carte blanche to attack gays.

Russian Gay Activist Brutally Attacked in Front of Journalists After City Bans Pride Parade: VIDEO

Artem Kalinin, a gay activist in Syktyvkar, the capital city of the Komi Republic in Russia, was beaten by the leader of a neo-Nazi group while journalists watched this week, hours after the city announced it was banning a Pride parade planned for March 31, Pink News reports:

In front of journalists – who caught the attack on camera – Alex Kolegov beat Kalinin. This worsened when gay activist Kalinin called Kolegov a ‘Nazi.’ However, Kalinin is not deterred by the attack. “This incident will not change my decision” said Kalinin. “We are going to hold pride in spite of everything.”

He and several witnesses reported the attack and death threats, but the police made no arrest.

Nikolai Alekseev, co-founder of Moscow Pride and GayRussia, has condemned the attack:“This is another proof of full disregard of Russian authorities of the European Court verdict in the case of Moscow Prides by Russian authorities.”

Watch video of the attack, AFTER THE JUMP...

Moscow Bans Gay Pride for 100 Years

A Moscow court has banned Gay Pride events for 100 years, Reuters  reports:

Earlier, Tverskoy district court ruled lawful the decision of the Moscow municipal government to ban public events that can be qualified as gay parades from March 2012 till May 2112.

Nikolay Alekseyev, one of the leaders of the Russian LGBT community and organizer of gay pride events, told reporters that he intended to appeal the decision in the Moscow City Court Presidium, and that if the highest Russian instance also rules against him, to address the European Court of Human Rights.

Alekseyev explained to the reporters that in 2011, the activists found a loophole in Russian legislation and submitted requests for 102 gay pride parades to the Moscow Mayor’s office. According to the activist, all they got in return was a letter with a quote from regulations, although the law obliges the city authorities to either allow or ban the planned event within 15 days.

At the same time, Alekseyev admitted that he and his comrades never hoped to actually receive a license for the parade but simply needed a formal excuse to turn to the European Human Rights Court.

Moscow bans gay pride for century ahead [reuters]

Moscow Police Crack Down on Banned Gay Pride Rally, Arresting 40: VIDEOS

Videos of the detention of 40 people at Moscow Gay Pride rallies on Sunday show Orthodox activists getting violent, and police stepping in roughly to arrest people. The Pride assembly was banned by authorities for the seventh straight year, but activists and opponents showed up anyway.

The Guardian reports:

Some Orthodox activists attacked the protesters, throwing punches, grabbing their rainbow flags and trampling on them in front of television cameras. Skirmishes occurred at the protests outside the city hall and parliament. Neither rally was sanctioned by Moscow authorities. Almost all of the 30 gay rights protesters were detained, and many fewer of 50 or so Orthodox activists involved.

Wrote activist Nikolai Alekseev on his Facebook page:

Full video of my arrest at Moscow Pride, from the moment I come to the square up to the moment I am put in the police van. Full proof for the court that I did not breach any law.

Watch the video (first one, AFTER THE JUMP...)

The AP reports:

The gay activists first gathered outside the city council building, where a few scuffles occurred as their opponents tried to disrupt the demonstration, decrying homosexuality as a sin. After police broke up that protest, another group tried to stage a second protest at city hall, but once again police moved in and detained participants, including prominent gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev.

The majority of those detained were gay activists, but some of the Christian demonstrators also were pushed into police buses. Police said about 40 people were detained in all.

Watch videos of the arrests and ugly scuffles, AFTER THE JUMP...

40 Arrested In Moscow Gay Rights Protest

From WashPo:

Gay activists tried to stage two demonstrations in Moscow on Sunday to demand the right to hold a gay pride parade in the Russian capital, but they were blocked first by Orthodox Christian opponents and then by police, who detained a total of about 40 people from both sides.

The gay activists first gathered outside the city council building, where a few scuffles occurred as their opponents tried to disrupt the demonstration, decrying homosexuality as a sin. After police broke up that protest, another group tried to stage a second protest at city hall, but once again police moved in and detained participants, including prominent gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev.

Alexeyev, by the way, was the first man arrested in St. Petersburg under that city's new law prohibiting the "promotion" of homosexuality.

Moscow, which doesn't yet have such a law, is nevertheless famously unwiling to issue permits for gay pride parades. In March, city authorities banned a parade scheduled for this afternoon; it was the seventh consecutive year officials had refused permits. On the day the parade was banned, Alexeyev -- who really gets around! -- wrote that he was "getting ready for clashes on the 27th."

The Orthodox Christians with whom he clashed this morning are described by WashPo:

Among the opponents of gay rights was Dmitry Tsarionov, who spoke to the crowd in front of a sign that said “Moscow is not Sodom.”

“I will not allow perverts to bring the wrath of God onto our city,” he said. “I want our children to live in a country where a sin that so awfully distorts human nature is not preached in schools.”

Russian Activists Prepare for Clashes as Moscow Bans Gay Pride for Seventh Straight Year

A Gay Pride march set for May 27 has been banned for the seventh consecutive year, AFP reports:

A city official in charge of security, Vasily Oleinik, told organisers the march would “provoke a negative reaction in society,” according to a statement released by the GayRussia group.

The public would see the march as a “provocation, causing moral harm to children and teenagers,” the official warned, according to the group.

Organisers of the gay pride, led by Nikolai Alexeyev, had applied for permission to hold a march down a central street with up to 1,000 participants and a rally on Revolution Square next to the Kremlin.

Alexeyev, an outspoken lawyer, wrote on Twitter that the authorities banned the event “even after we were ready to accept any location and guaranteed no obscenity and nudity.”

He vowed to appeal the decision in a city court on Monday, but said the event would go ahead despite the risk of a crackdown by the authorities.

“Getting ready for clashes on 27 May,” he wrote.

Alexeyev was the first conviction under St. Petersburg's ban on "gay propaganda", a law being considered both in Moscow, and federally.

In related news, almost half of Russians believe media and propaganda make people gay:

Almost half of Russians believe homosexuality is a human behavior acquired under the influence of the media, according to a poll taken by state-run pollster VTsIOM earlier this month.

“Forty-seven percent of the respondents said media and propaganda were the key factors contributing to development of a person’s non-traditional sexual orientation,” the pollster said in a press release issued Thursday. Among other vital factors that impact the development of homosexuality, respondents named the influence of friends and parents (35 and 33 percent, respectively). Only 16 percent said that negative experience of past relationships with people of the opposite sex brings about homosexuality.