by Rex Wockner
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
LGBT people plan to protest at the Russian Embassy in London on July 1.
They will demand that Russia's voting rights at the Council of Europe be revoked.
Despite a European Court of Human Rights ruling this year that Moscow's yearly bans of gay pride violate the European Convention on Human Rights, the city prohibited the march again in May.
When a small group of people attempted to defy the ban, 18 of them were aggressively arrested, much the same as in previous years, when the activists also were beaten by anti-gay hooligans and assaulted by religious counterprotesters.
"Russia has shown itself to be unsuitable to have a say in the Council of Europe," said the organizers of the London demonstration. "Russia must issue a full apology to the protesters and take steps to prosecute those who are known to have taken part in violence against peaceful protesters. It must also commit to implementing full police protection for future Moscow Pride events. Until it has taken these steps, Russia should have its vote on the Council of Europe suspended."
Meanwhile, new Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said June 16 that gays can forget about marching in Moscow.
According to Moscow Pride, Sobyanin told reporters, "These are issues of morality."
Moscow Pride founder Nikolai Alekseev commented: "Gays are the last discriminated social group in Moscow when it turns to freedom of expression. We cannot go in the streets legally, we cannot register an organization, we are basically deprived of our civil and political rights and, after such declaration, there is nothing to even hope for."