Historic First Gay Pride March Held In Ukraine As Gay Activists Are Arrested In Moscow: VIDEOS

While gay activists marched under police protection in the streets of Kiev, Ukraine today, some 30 people (from both pro- and anti-gay camps) were arrested by police in Moscow as they protested Russia's recently passed ban on "gay propaganda," Reuters is reporting.  

Yesterday, a court ruled to cancel Kiev's pride march amidst security concerns. However, police stepped in at the last minute to offer protection to those marching today and arrested 13 people for trying to disrupt the march.

Pro-gay activists in Ukraine are not underestimating the significance of today's march:

"'This event will go down in the history of Ukraine as one of the key developments in the fight for equal human rights,' said Olena Semenova, one of the organizers, expressing gratitude to the police and the authorities for their action."

The assistance and support provided by authorities in Ukraine is in stark contrast to the hard-line anti-gay actions taken by their counterparts in Russia.  This month Moscow officials again refused to allow a gay pride march.  

Today's events come on the heels of the recent brutal murder of a gay man in Volgograd, Russia, Vladislav Tornovoi, who was raped, tortured and finally killed because he was gay.   

The Russian government has been ratcheting up its anti-gay rhetoric as of late. Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov has stated that the Russian Federation will now consider altering its adoption policies with France, following that nation's legalization of same-sex marriage.  This announcement has echoed calls by President Vladimir Putin to end adoption of Russian children by foreign gay couples and, more broadly, by nations who allow same-sex marriage.  Yet Putin insists Russia does not discriminate against gays.  Today's events in addition to accounts from Russian activists seem to tell a different story.

Check out some videos of the march in Ukraine and the arrests in Russia, AFTER THE JUMP...

Ukrainian Court Cancels Gay Pride March

A court in Kiev, Ukraine has cancelled a gay pride march scheduled for Saturday, citing concerns from city authorities that the demonstration could incite violence.  Reuters reports:

A Kiev court on Thursday banned what would have been Ukraine's first gay pride event after city authorities raised security concerns.

There is little public acceptance of homosexuality in predominantly Orthodox Ukraine, as in other former Soviet republics; last week, large crowds of protesters broke up gay rights rallies in Georgia and Russia.

A spokeswoman for the organizers of Saturday's Equality March, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals, said activists would find another way to express "our protest, our view on what is going on with human rights in Ukraine".

Last year, a similar demonstration cancelled at the last minute when skinheads massed at the march's predetermined location, intent on menacing participants.  Svyatoslav Sheremet, who leads the Gay Forum of Ukraine, was attacked by anti-gay protesters following the cancellation, and the beating was captured on film by a Reuters photographer (see above).

A majority of Ukraine's population belongs to the Orthodox Church, a staunch opponent of LGBT equality.  According to The Guardian, a small pride rally held last week in Georgia was broken up by a mob that included Orthodox priests.

This weekend, Amnesty International published a report condemning what it described as "endemic discrimination" by the Ukrainian government and the public at large toward LGBT individuals:

Amnesty International has documented several violent attacks against LGBTI people, some carried out by public officials, and some by members of the public. In some cases such attacks have resulted in death. Yet the authorities fail to investigate these crimes promptly, thoroughly, effectively and impartially, and, moreover, fuel the pervasive negative stereotypes about LGBTI people in Ukrainian society which underpin the attacks. 

In a statement protesting the cancellation, Human Rights Watch LGBT rights advocacy director Boris Dittrich said, "Banning the Kiev Equality March would send all the wrong signals to those seeking to prevent or obstruct it.  Authorities should show political leadership and make it clear they won’t let hateful rhetoric, threats of violence, and bullying tactics dictate their policies."  HRW will have two observers on the ground in Kiev this Saturday to monitor the situation.

 

Stilleto-Wearing Ukrainian Synth Pop Group Kazaky Has Had Enough of This 'Crazy Law': VIDEO

Ukrainian stilletoed synth pop group Kazaky, who should know something about crazy laws, serves it up again in a gritty prison video on just that topic.

Check it out, AFTER THE JUMP...

Law Banning 'Gay Propaganda' Advances in Ukraine

Ukrainian lawmakers have advanced a law that would ban "gay propaganda" similar to the one passed earlier this year in St. Petersburg, Russia, RIA Novosti reports:

The draft law, approved by 289 out of 350 lawmakers at a parliament session on Tuesday, envisions amendments to several existing laws which would impose prison terms of up to five years and hefty fines for spreading the “propaganda of homosexuality.”

The bill's authors claim "gay propaganda" could lead to a worsening of Ukraine's HIV/AIDS epidemic and destroy the traditional family institution, causing a demographic crisis in the country.

“By promoting the extreme forms of sexual frivolity, the Ukrainian media is creating the conditions for the spread of the AIDS epidemic in Ukraine,” an explanatory note accompanying the bill says.

“In order to prevent this dangerous process, it is necessary to introduce legislation banning the propaganda of homosexuality by the Ukrainian media,” the note says.

A second vote is expected on October 16, after which it could become law.

Image: a Ukrainian gay rights activist is beaten as the media looks on, in May 2012.

SpongeBob Is A Gay Menace To Ukrainian Children

SpongeBob Squarepants is gay, according to Ukraine's National Expert Commission for Protecting Public Morality.

In a report published Thursday and publicized in Ukraínskaya Pravda, the Commission identifies several cartoons and children's entertainments, SpongeBob among them, which encourage the "destruction of the family, and the promotion of drugs and other vices." SpongeBob's gay, anime's sexist, and The Simpsons, Family Guy, Fururama and The Teletubbies are just rotten.

EITB has provided a helpful partial translation of the Pravda article:

According to Irina Medvédeva, a psychologist quoted in the study, children aged between 3 and 5 years, after being exposed to such series, “pull faces and make jokes in front of adults they don’t know, laugh out loud and repeat nonsense phrases in a brazen manner.”

The report goes on to say that “The Teletubbies deliberately aims to create subnormal (men), who spend all day in front of the television with their mouths open swallowing all types of information,” behaviour which, it claims, complies with the “psychology of losers”.

The Commission is may soon propose a Ukraine-wide ban on some or all of these entertainments. As Andy reported last month, Ukrainian lawmakers are also currently considering a St. Petersburg-style ban on pro-gay "propaganda."

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The Ukrainian Moral Commission has decided that Spongebob Squarepants is gay and therefore unfit for television.

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Great Britain is pretty "disappointed" after Ecuador granted Wikileaks leader Julian Assange political asylum.

As part of their effort to oust Colorado House Speaker Frank McNulty, the Republican who single-handedly squashed civil unions there, the group Fight Back Colorado is asking readers to pick the lawmaker's next profession: Chick-fil-A jockey; spin class instructor, because of all the spin he puts on his hateful politics; or undertaker, "because he killed the civil unions bill—and 30 other important bills in the process".

Jodie Foster has Kristen Stewart's back.

Cheyenne Jackson sits down with David Mixner to discuss a variety of topics, including his forthcoming Broadway show alongside Henry Winkler: "In my Broadway play coming up [The Performers], I have some dialogue and some costumes that are gonna take some real cojones to say and wear without some initial embarrassment. But that's why I do what I do. Cuz if something scares you, it means you should do it. Again, thank you Oprah."

A new report that will shape the next decade of scientific research "emphasizes the need for research to better understand the sun, how it interacts with Earth and other bodies in the solar system, and the origins of potentially harmful space weather..."

Former reality star Lauren Conrad took down this video of her destroying books because it rightfully upset people.

Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine claims President Obama staged recent mass shootings, including the one in Aurora, Colorado, so that he can destroy gun rights.

Let us not play the blame game with the FRC shooting.