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The Moscow Times reports:
Channel One’s mock news show “Yesterday Live” imagined what might have happened if City Hall had permitted the [gay pride] march and the two sides had gotten together to celebrate, in a surprisingly tolerant comedy sketch. A news reader in a satin jacket reads from a pink page against a gay rights flag. “It would be curious to see gays and border guards marking their holiday on the same day,” he says. The sketch shows stereotypically mincing gay activists in Village People outfits and boas fraternizing with the swaggering border guards in stripy vests. “We’ve waited 17 years for Luzhkov to leave,” one says, referring to the openly homophobic mayor, sacked in September. The two sides join for a “West Side Story”-style dance routine to the tune of the song “America” with a joke about the sexual orientation of the pop singers at the traditional concert for the border guards. At the end, the two groups separate, but one border guard confusedly stays with the gay group, before running back to his brothers in arms with a scream of alarm.Courtesy of Blabbeando, here's the skit. The audio is unfortunately out of sync.
The U.S. State Department has issued a letter condemning the arrests of gay activists in Moscow over the weekend.
STATEMENT BY MARK TONER, DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON
Concern about Freedom of Assembly in Russia
We note with concern that in Moscow on Saturday, May 28, a peaceable demonstration of Russians advocating for the rights of gays and lesbians, joined by international supporters, was forcefully disrupted by counter-protesters, and that Russian security forces then detained people from both groups, including American citizens. Some protestors were seriously injured according to media reports.
Freedom of assembly is a fundamental right all members of the OSCE committed to, including in the Moscow declaration and as recently as the Astana summit. As nationwide legislative elections approach, constraints on the ability of Russian citizens peacefully to gather and express their views will be closely watched in evaluating the integrity of the electoral process. We call on Russian authorities to work with municipal officials to find better ways to safeguard these fundamental freedoms.
"We witnessed a high level of fraternisation and collusion between neo-Nazis and the Moscow police. I saw neo-Nazis leave and re-enter police buses parked on Tverskaya Street by City Hall. Our suspicion is that many of the neo-Nazis were actually plainclothes police officers, who did to us what their uniformed colleagues dared not do in front of the world’s media. Either that, or the police were actively facilitating the right-wing extremists with transport to the protest.
"During the Second World War, Mucovites stood against the Nazis. Now the Mayor of Moscow is colluding with neo-Nazis. He gave the neo-Nazi groups permission to stage a protest calling for violence against gay people, while denying Moscow Gay Pride a permit to rally for gay equality." - Famed British activist Peter Tatchell, reporting from yesterday's demonstration in Moscow.
UK Gay News is running a live blog from the pride protest in Moscow. Here are the latest entries at this writing:
14:00. Andy Thayer is confirmed as having been arrested, along with Dan Choi and Louis-Georges Tin, Anna and three other Russian gay activists.
13:40. Report just in that four Russians participats in Pride have been arrested outside Moscow City Hall.
13:31. Dan Choi and Louis-Georges Tin both confirmed as having been arrested.
13:29. "All participants of Moscow Pride at Alexandrovski Gardens was been "brutally arrested", Chad Meacham has just reported. The arrest were made as participants arrived at the Gardens. One person, Louis-Geroges Tin was allowed to give an iterview with the world's TV and press. No names of those arrested are not known, apart from Anna.
During a nationally televised debate on the rights of gay people to assemble and protest, noted activist Nikolai Alekseev ripped off his microphone and stormed off the set. Feast Of Fun reports:
GayRussia leader Nikolai Alekseev walked off the set of a national TV debate show this afternoon after accusing the moderator, Vladimir Solovyev, of slanting the show towards homophobes. The show has been described to me as sort of like “Meet the Press,” except that millions of people actually watch it. Alekseev was debating Alexander Hinstein, a deputy in the State Duma (parliament) and member of Vladir Putin’s United Russia Party. The last straw was when Solovyev, host of the nationally broadcast show, Poednivo (roughly “The Dual” in English), called on an audience member who accused gays of physically threatening her young daughter. Alekseev tore off his microphone and walked off as the cameras rolled. Shortly thereafter, the LGBT members of the audience also walked out.
One month after the city of Moscow granted permission for the city's first authorized gay pride event in years, that ruling has been revoked.
The reasons given by the deputy mayor of Moscow, Ludmila Shvetsova, is because of “the impossibility to provide security” – and a high number of letters of protests received by the City Hall against this event. “The reasons for banning the Moscow Pride this year are exactly the same reasons used in the past years – and for which the European Court of Human Rights judged against Russia for violating the European Convention on Human Rights, Pride chief organiser Nikolai Alekseev. “Russia has decided to mark the Day Against Homophobia by showing, once again, its homophobic policy towards its LGBT citizens. He revealed that an application would now be made directly to the Russian President. “We will apply today to President Dmitri Medvedev for permission to hold our Gay Pride March next to Kremlin, an area which is solely within his jurisdiction.
For first time since 2006, Moscow city officials have approved a gay pride event. Last October the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Moscow had acted illegally when banning previous pride events. Those bannings came at the demand of anti-gay former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who left office last year.
"The Moscow government told the Moscow gay pride parade organizers on Tuesday that the Moscow authorities have authorized a gay pride parade in Moscow," Alexeyev said in a statement released in Moscow. The organizers notified the Moscow government and the Moscow traffic police of their intention to hold a gay pride parade on April 12, he said. The rally entitled "Moscow Gay Pride Parade: Homosexuality in the History of World Culture and Civilization" will take place on May 28, Alexeyev said. The Moscow authorities have suggested reducing number of the rally participants to 500, which was done, he said.
A reported suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport today has killed dozens and left more than 100 injured.
Russian news agencies, citing witnesses, said airport halls were filled with smoke, so much so that it was difficult to count the number of dead. International arrivals were being diverted to nearby, according to local media reports. The explosion occurred at 4:32 p.m. local time, according to RT television. The airport, southeast of the capital, is Russia’s largest hub for international travelers, with more than 20 million passengers passing through last year.CNN is currently reporting the death toll at 31. The bomb is said to have gone off in the international arrivals baggage claim area, which is unsecured.
