by Rex Wockner
With several lawsuits pending before the European Court of Human Rights against Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov for his repeated bans of gay pride events, Moscow Pride organizers now have filed a similar suit against Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The new case stems from a May 2008 ban of a planned gay pride parade at Aleksandrovsky Garden next to the Kremlin, an area under federal control.
Federal officials failed to respond to the request to hold the parade and instead forwarded it to city officials, who automatically ban requests to hold gay events in public places.
Mayor Luzhkov has called gay pride parades "satanic" and "weapons of mass destruction."
"It's a pity that the president, even though he proclaimed that he would fight for human rights, did not interfere and put an end to the unlawful actions of Moscow officials," said pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev.
When Moscow gays have ignored the bans and staged unofficial pride events, they have been violently attacked by anti-gay protesters and police officers.
