by Rex Wockner
International News
Moscow Pride will ask the European Court of Human Rights for an emergency hearing on two pending cases challenging Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's bans on gay pride activities for the past three years.
Pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev said he had received word that the court would not be ready to hear the cases until around 2012.
He said that seems unreasonable given that a ban on the 2005 gay pride parade in Warsaw was struck down by the court in May 2007, less than 18 months after the case was filed.
Moscow Pride first appealed to the Euro Court on Jan. 29, 2007.
On Dec. 4, Luzhkov said he will continue to ban gay pride activities because "propaganda of sexual minorities' opinions … can be one of the factors in the spread of HIV infection."
Luzhkov previously has called gay pride parades "satanic" and city officials have said the parades would create unacceptable levels of public disorder and security problems.
Despite the bans, gays have staged various small pride events over the past three years. Participants in the events were violently attacked by anti-gay mobs and police officers.
