by Rex Wockner
International News Briefs
LGBT people managed to stage two small, brief pride marches in Moscow on May 29 despite another ban from Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who says gay marches are "satanic."
In previous years, police violently prevented or broke up the small "illegal" marches, but this time activists outwitted the authorities. Hundreds of riot and undercover officers ended up at the wrong location.
"The (main) march was relatively short, around five minutes, but we managed to fool the police and the anti-pride protesters," said Moscow Pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev. "It was a real military operation. We had given a meeting point to a group of selected journalists whom we took for a three-hour excursion around Moscow until they reached the pride spot at 1:15 p.m. Then, when they arrived, the march started and everyone came out waiving a 20-meter rainbow flag."
The march took place on Leningradsky Prospekt near the Belaruskaya train station.
"The guerrilla-style hit-and-run Moscow gay pride march was over before the police arrived," said British gay activist Peter Tatchell, who joined the march. "When they turned up, officers scurried around aimlessly, searching for protesters to arrest."
"All morning the gay pride organizers fed the police a steady stream of false information, via blogs and websites, concerning the location of the parade," Tatchell explained. "They suggested that it would take place outside the EU (European Union) Commission's offices. As a result, the police put the whole area in total lockdown, closing nearby streets and metro stations, in a bid to prevent protesters assembling there."
The authorities also tailed journalists, in hopes of finding the parade, said Andy Thayer of Chicago's Gay Liberation Network, who took part in the march.
Nonetheless, "pride organizers were able to 'embed' and get coverage from major international news agencies, including the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, TF1 (France), Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Swedish television, BFM (French news channel), France 2, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation," Thayer said.
Earlier in the day, a different group of some 25 activists staged an unannounced gay march for 10 minutes on a downtown pedestrian street. It ended when police blocked their path and the marchers ran away. No attempt had been made to get a permit or permission for that march.
This was the fifth year that Mayor Luzhkov banned Moscow Pride, sent police to smash it, and called gay people names.
"For several years, Moscow has experienced unprecedented pressure to conduct a gay pride parade, which cannot be called anything but a satanic act," he said in January. "We have banned such parades and will ban them in future as well."
Moscow Pride organizers have sued over the hostility in a series of cases that have been merged at the European Court of Human Rights. A ruling is expected within months.
