Moscow – Teheran : Solidarity with Iran Queers
20/07/2006
Submitted by
Nikolay Alekseev, National Human Rights LGBT Project GayRussia.ru
Moscow – Teheran : Solidarity with Iran Queers
First post gay pride public action of gays and lesbians in Russia
http://www.gayrussia.ru/en/news/detail.php?ID=6374
July 19th marked the first anniversary of the hangings of two gay teenagers in the north of Iran. At the initiative of Project GayRussia, one of the leading gay advocate group in Moscow, Russian gays have answered the appeal launched by the “International Day Against Homophobia” (IDAHO) Committee and OutRage! Similar events took place around the world in San Francisco, London, Paris, Washington, Toronto or New York”
The events was the first public action of the Russian gay and lesbian community after the May 27th banned gay pride.
“We applied for this picket a week in advance and the next day, we received a positive answer from the local authorities” told us Nikolai Baev, an activist from Project GayRussia. Asked how he explains this change of policy from the Moscow authorities -- a City Hall official declared last May that Moscow government will always forbid any demonstration supporting homosexuality -- Baev explains the strategy followed by his group ”We did not tell them that it will be connected with LGBT rights” In fact, the authorities allowed the picket because they did not really know the topic. A similar strategy cannot be use a gay pride.
Around 20 gays, lesbians and human rights activists from different groups attended the event. Like during the Gay Pride in May, the main Russian Human Rights Group declined to join. Some individuals were also seen supporting the demonstrators. In fact, the organizers explained that they decided to remain discreet after they got the positive reply from the authorities. The event was not advertised in the medias to avoid its cancellation by the authorities.
The police protected the activists. Baev explains that “At the beginning, they were 5 policemen and by the end of the picket, they were 20”. Despite the limited information dispatched about the picket, a group of 10 young facists showed up. The police carefully kept them away from the group of activists. “They were silent and did not say anything” explains Baev. “But at the end, when they started to get closer to us, we asked the policemen to take our group up to the metro station”.
“Today we have shown that the Moscow police is able to protect a peaceful demonstration organized by gays and lesbians. This fact now contradicts with the words of the mayor who always said that the safety of such event cannot be guaranty” declared Nikolai Alekseev, one of the gay pride organizer, last May.
Several posters, banners and flags asking Iran to stop execution of minors and homosexuals were shown to the dozen of journalists who covered the event. TV, news agency, photo reporters but also radio interviewed the activists.
Over the last weeks, some discussion took place in the international LGBT community about the real motives of the court which sentenced the two boys to death last year. Iran government claims that the two boys were not minors and, that they had raped a young child. But a report relayed by Peter Tatchell claimed that the two boys were minors and that they were sentenced on the basis of their homosexuality and “mutual love”
Baev prefers to keep away from polemic : “It was a barbarian execution and Iran authorities did not have any rights to execute minors in such barbarian way. Our answer was very right. Things like this cannot exist in a modern society”.
Overall, gays and lesbians are very satisfied. “This was a very successful action. We know that we will always have problems because Moscow authorities are very homophobic. We will have always to be very clever to get some permission”. But this does not prevent the activists to plan some new actions over the next months before the second Moscow Pride that is scheduled for May 27th, 2007.
Russian support to Iran started last year when Project GayRussia organized a press conference to inform the Russian medias of the hangings of two children. It followed a letter of protest addressed both to the Russian President and the Ambassador of Iran in Moscow. Up to now, both letters remained unanswered. At the same time, an exclusive interview organized by GayRussia with the activists of MAHA --a local group editing an LGBT e-magazine in Iran-- was relayed all over the world.
The picket started at 1pm and last for half an hour as planned in the application.
GayRussia.Ru
First post gay pride public action of gays and lesbians in Russia
http://www.gayrussia.ru/en/news/detail.php?ID=6374
July 19th marked the first anniversary of the hangings of two gay teenagers in the north of Iran. At the initiative of Project GayRussia, one of the leading gay advocate group in Moscow, Russian gays have answered the appeal launched by the “International Day Against Homophobia” (IDAHO) Committee and OutRage! Similar events took place around the world in San Francisco, London, Paris, Washington, Toronto or New York”
The events was the first public action of the Russian gay and lesbian community after the May 27th banned gay pride.
“We applied for this picket a week in advance and the next day, we received a positive answer from the local authorities” told us Nikolai Baev, an activist from Project GayRussia. Asked how he explains this change of policy from the Moscow authorities -- a City Hall official declared last May that Moscow government will always forbid any demonstration supporting homosexuality -- Baev explains the strategy followed by his group ”We did not tell them that it will be connected with LGBT rights” In fact, the authorities allowed the picket because they did not really know the topic. A similar strategy cannot be use a gay pride.
Around 20 gays, lesbians and human rights activists from different groups attended the event. Like during the Gay Pride in May, the main Russian Human Rights Group declined to join. Some individuals were also seen supporting the demonstrators. In fact, the organizers explained that they decided to remain discreet after they got the positive reply from the authorities. The event was not advertised in the medias to avoid its cancellation by the authorities.
The police protected the activists. Baev explains that “At the beginning, they were 5 policemen and by the end of the picket, they were 20”. Despite the limited information dispatched about the picket, a group of 10 young facists showed up. The police carefully kept them away from the group of activists. “They were silent and did not say anything” explains Baev. “But at the end, when they started to get closer to us, we asked the policemen to take our group up to the metro station”.
“Today we have shown that the Moscow police is able to protect a peaceful demonstration organized by gays and lesbians. This fact now contradicts with the words of the mayor who always said that the safety of such event cannot be guaranty” declared Nikolai Alekseev, one of the gay pride organizer, last May.
Several posters, banners and flags asking Iran to stop execution of minors and homosexuals were shown to the dozen of journalists who covered the event. TV, news agency, photo reporters but also radio interviewed the activists.
Over the last weeks, some discussion took place in the international LGBT community about the real motives of the court which sentenced the two boys to death last year. Iran government claims that the two boys were not minors and, that they had raped a young child. But a report relayed by Peter Tatchell claimed that the two boys were minors and that they were sentenced on the basis of their homosexuality and “mutual love”
Baev prefers to keep away from polemic : “It was a barbarian execution and Iran authorities did not have any rights to execute minors in such barbarian way. Our answer was very right. Things like this cannot exist in a modern society”.
Overall, gays and lesbians are very satisfied. “This was a very successful action. We know that we will always have problems because Moscow authorities are very homophobic. We will have always to be very clever to get some permission”. But this does not prevent the activists to plan some new actions over the next months before the second Moscow Pride that is scheduled for May 27th, 2007.
Russian support to Iran started last year when Project GayRussia organized a press conference to inform the Russian medias of the hangings of two children. It followed a letter of protest addressed both to the Russian President and the Ambassador of Iran in Moscow. Up to now, both letters remained unanswered. At the same time, an exclusive interview organized by GayRussia with the activists of MAHA --a local group editing an LGBT e-magazine in Iran-- was relayed all over the world.
The picket started at 1pm and last for half an hour as planned in the application.
GayRussia.Ru
