RUSSIA: Lawmaker Vows To Unleash "Whips And Torches" On Lesbian Couple

When two Russian lesbians noticed notorious anti-gay lawmaker Vitaly Milonov sitting behind them on their Moscow to St. Petersburg flight, they decided to Instagram some photos of themselves kissing with Milonov in the shot. After their photos went viral on Russian social media, Milonov vowed revenge: "This animal offended all the passengers on the plane with its extravagant, terrible, inhuman antics. I can call the Cossacks - they’re already on their way, with whips and torches. We will expel all the perverts from St. Petersburg." Hit the link for more photos at Buzzfeed.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Milonov proposes banning Apple CEO Tim Cook from ever visiting Russia again. Milonov calls on Russia's postal service to reject any mail bearing the Tom Of Finland stamps. Sixteen gay activists are hospitalized due to exposure to an unknown gas after Milonov and Russian Orthodox protesters crash an LGBT film festival. Milonov calls on Russia television to block the broadcast of Eurovision due to the participation of "that pervert from Austria," Conchita Wurst. After a local gay man is blinded in a gay-bashing, Milonov says that gay men deserve to be "punched and kicked" and that he is a "defender of the cross." Milonov calls for the arrest of Madonna and Lady Gaga for violating St. Petersburg's ban on "gay propaganda," a bill he authored.

RUSSIA: Thugs Sicken Crowd With Gas At St. Petersburg Queer Culture Festival

Accompanied by local lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, anti-gay thugs from the Russian Orthodox Church swarmed yesterday's opening of the  St. Petersburg QueerFest where 16 attendees were reportedly hospitalized after an unknown gas was released.

Via Radio Free Europe:

St. Petersburg lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, his aide Anatoly Artyukh, and activists who associate themselves with the Russian Orthodox faith interrupted the opening ceremony of the "KviroFest-2014" event at a cafe on September 18. The visitors splashed an indelible green antiseptic on participants and released an unidentified gas that sickened many. The 10-day festival opened despite the attack. Russia decriminalized homosexual relations after the 1991 Soviet collapse, but such harassment is common. Rights defenders and Western governments including the United States say a 2013 law banning the dissemination of gay "propaganda" to minors is discriminatory and encourages ill-treatment of LGBT people.

More from Gay Star News:

LGBTI organization Coming Out St Petersburg, as well as 40 other volunteers, had worked tirelesly for five months to ensure the arts event was a success. But an hour and a half before the opening, Polina Andrianova told Gay Star News they were forced to move to a different venue. She alleged the owner of the building had forced the space to break the contract, and the Coming Out group had to change the venue, installations, sound equipment and direct all the guests to another space. But the anti-gay thugs found them. "There were 20 aggressors, and the security guys that we hired blocked them from entering,' Andrianova told GSN. "They proceeded to spray the doors - two entrances - with this horrific green stuff. They also sprayed some form of gas - it left a really bad, putrid scent. Today we learned 16 people were hospitalized today from breathing this thing in." Andrianova believes Milonov may have left immediately before the lawbreaking began. But she says the deputy of St Petersburg comes to all of their events, any street rally, to try and shut them down. "He seems to enjoy the PR."

GLAAD has more and photos of the event prior to the melee.

Vitaly Milonov and fellow anti-LGBT activists, who proceeded to insult and push guests, representatives of human rights organizations and European and the US diplomatic missions in St. Petersburg spoke of the importance of respect for human rights and non-violence. About 20 hooligans sprayed guests with green substance and some sort of putrid gas. At one point, two foreign guests were being pulled into the venue by the security while being pulled out by their feet by the perpetrators. The police, who carried themselves professionally, were taking numerous statements by the victims, while St. Petersburg ombudsman urged more people to document violations. Unfortunately, the second venue also ceded to pressures, and most events are now homeless. But the organizers remain optimistic.

Tweet Of The Day - Rustem Adagamov

"The ROC [Russian Orthodox Church] categorically opposes bearded men in dresses!" - Popular Russian blogger Rustem Agadamov, reacting to the church's denouncement of Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst.

Vladimir Legoyda, the chairman of the ROC, described Wurst’s win as a "sign of the world’s moral decline" and "part of the aggressive assertion of Western cultural norms." He told Interfax: "The process of the legalisation of that to which the Bible refers to as nothing less than an abomination is already long not news in the contemporary world. Unfortunately, the legal and cultural spheres are moving in a parallel direction, to which the results of this competition bear witness." It comes as Russian lawmakers have called for the country to pull out of Eurovision to create their own version where ‘gay culture’ would be banned.

HUNTED: British Documentary Follows Russian Gay Bashers "Going On Safari"

Britain's Channel 4, which yesterday rebranded itself in protest of Russia's anti-gay crackdown, has aired a chilling documentary titled Dispatches: Hunted in which journalists travel with gangs of Russian gay bashers to record their vicious actions.

Lucy Mangan reviews the show for the Guardian:

The gangs call it "going on safari". It is apt, given how comprehensively the church, state, legislature and their own brutal instincts have combined to dehumanise gay men and women. "I just consider them spiritually and morally ill. Even cattle don't engage in this," pronounces one representative priest. The terms "paedophile" and "homosexual" are used interchangeably in public and private discourse. Not content with effectively criminalising anything but negative portrayals of, references to or teachings about homosexuality, influential members of the Russian parliament are currently trying to strengthen the new legislation so that the children of gay couples can be taken away from them and put into care. As one gay woman – a mother of three, who did not want to be identified – said, it would be a law to make Hitler proud.

In the meantime, things are horrific. Footage is shown of some of the thousands of attacks that have taken place across Russia since the anti-"gay propaganda" law was passed: a man kicked in the face and falling back unconscious; a man forced naked into a bath being handed a dildo and having a bottle of piss poured over him; and a man with a gun to his head being forced to rape himself with a bottle. The Dispatches team itself is there when the gang they are filming – which seems to be a loose coalition of two groups calling themselves Parents for Russia and Occupy Paedophilia – manages to lure a victim back to a flat. Their taunting ("How do you all become gay? Do you just sit at home and decide to take it up the arse?") and mental torture (which, on account of the director's camera does not become physical this time) lasts an hour. "We followed him out," says the voiceover, "to offer assistance and support." His suffering, of course, will continue once the film of his "interview", as the gang calls it, is posted.

The show has been posted in full to YouTube, but not by the network so it will likely be yanked quickly. Watch this right now if you have the time.

RUSSIA: Actor Ivan "Burn Gays Alive" Okhlobystin Resigns From Phone Retailer

"Given the incessant threats, provocations and insults from the sodomites in respect of my friends, associates and their familes, I have resigned. People close to me do not have to suffer from my public position from which I will never give up. Sodom and Gomorrah must be destroyed!" - Ivan Okhlobystin, announcing his resignation as the creative director for Euroset, Russia's largest cell phone retailer. Euroset and Apple had been the targets of a petition campaign demanding that Ohklobystin be fired after he said he'd like to burn all gay people alive in ovens. Last week he called on the Russian government to criminalize homosexuality, a demand that was immediately endorsed by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Russian Orthodox Church Calls For Referendum To Criminalize Homosexuality

Days after a similar demand from Russian actor Ivan "Burn Gays Alive" Okhlobystin, the Russian Orthodox Church has called for a public referendum to criminalize homosexual acts.

The Church's abrupt intervention came amid a growing debate over whether the Kremlin should mount a firmer defence of traditional values that many in the overwhelmingly conservative country view as coming under attack from Europe and the United States. Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin pointed to polls showing more than half of Russians viewing homosexuality as either an illness or a crime as a sign that the country was ready to revert to a Soviet-era homosexual ban. "There is no question that society should discuss this issue since we live in a democracy," Chaplin told the online edition of the pro-government Izvestia daily. "For this reason, it is precisely the majority of our people and not some outside powers that should decide what should be a criminal offence and what should not," he said.

A member of Vladimir Putin's ruling party told the news agency Interfax that Russia is bound by international treaties that ban outlawing homosexuality.

Russian Actor: I Would Like To Shove All Living Gays Into A Furnace

"I myself would shove all living gays into furnace. This is Sodom and Gomorrah.  I as a beliver in God can not treat this indifferently, this is a live threat to my kids! I do not wants my kids to think that faggots are normal. This is lavender fascism. If a person can not choose someone of an opposite sex for procreation – this is a overt sign of mental abnormality, so they should be denied voting rights." - Actor and Russian Orthodox priest Ivan Okhlobystin, speaking last week on his "spiritual tour." Queer Russia notes that the audience applauded after the above remark.

Russia's Vitaly Milonov: Gay Men Deserve To Be Punched And Kicked

Vitaly Milonov, the author of St. Petersburg's "homosexual propaganda ban," has responded to the attack which cost a gay man his left eye. Via the St. Petersburg Times:

Answering Chizhevsky’s accusations, Milonov said LGBT organizations themselves were to blame for the attack and alleged that the incident might have been an act of provocation to compromise anti-LGBT activists. According to Milonov, some anti-gay activists are provoked by what he called the LGBT activists’ “continuously eccentric escapades, rudeness and acts of provocation.” “Unfortunately, not everybody manages to stay calm, some behave inappropriately,” Milonov told the Fontanka.ru website on Nov. 6. “But to say that some of our activists went with pneumatic guns to a homosexual den…it’s a great pity that the guy got it in the eye, but I think it was a planned act of provocation.” Although a number of LGBT activists were hit by stones and beaten during the rallies, Milonov said that the level of the violence was exaggerated.

“I can’t remember such aggression against these people,” he said. “But when some idiot hops on the Field of Mars (the site of recent LGBT rights rallies) with a placard reading ‘Sodom to every home,’ he is asking to be punched. So it’s absolutely wrong to think that any of our activists could have done this to Chizhevsky. The maximum that they did was delivering somebody a kick at a gay parade.” Milonov apparently approved of acts of violence against LGBT rights activists — whom he alleged to be financed by “Georgian entrepreneurs and from Israel” — at public rallies. “When a foreign agent openly offends my family, as a Russian man I deliver him a kick,” he said. Later in the interview, Milonov dismissed LGBT rights as the “rights of sick people and perverts,” describing LGBT rights rallies as “marches against normal society.”

A member of the Russian Orthodox Church, Milonov calls himeself "a defender of the cross." (Graphic via Queer Nation)

RUSSIA: 67 Arrested As Orthodox Priests And Skinheads Clash With LGBT Activists

Priests from the Russian Orthodox Church and skinheads clashed with LGBT activists at a St. Petersburg rally yesterday to mark Coming Out Day. There were 67 arrests.

The rally on the Field of Mars (Marsovo Pole) in the city’s downtown was scheduled at 2 p.m., but anti-gay activists arrived at the scene before that time to protest against the event. The activists included Cossacks, Orthodox protesters and members of Russian nationalist organizations. When the LGBT activists arrived, they were met by the anti-gay activists who sang religious songs and did not allow them to get to the venue of the rally. The protesters said they were against holding the event on the Field of Mars, which had a war memorial. Police intervened in the scuffle shortly after the gay rights activists attempted to raise rainbow flags.

One activist told reporters that the police failed to act because the G20 Summit has concluded and the international press has left the city. The headline on one Russian news report about the incident translates as, "With Obama gone, everything is permitted."


(Tipped by JMG reader Str8 Grandmother)

RUSSIA: Eight Pastafarians Arrested After Clashing WIth Orthodox Church Members

Eight followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster were arrested for marching without a permit in Moscow yesterday after members of the Russian Orthodox Church attacked them during a mock religious rally.

Followers of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster planned to hold a “pasta procession” in Moscow and St. Petersburg to honor the birthday of Robert De Niro, who once played a character named Noodle in the movie Once Upon A Time in America. The “pasta procession” in Moscow was disrupted by the Orthodox activist group Bozhaya Volya, or God’s Will, who sprayed ketchup on a march participants. The Orthodox group has held demonstrations against homosexuality, the punk rock group Pussy Riot, and the Darwin natural history museum. Moscow police dispersed the marchers, claiming the procession was not sanctioned by authorities. “We were detained for simply walking,” one Pastafarian wrote on a social networking website. “In particular, I was taken in for a sieve on my head.”

On June 30th, the same day that Vladimir Putin signed the bill against "homosexual propaganda," he signed into law a bill which makes it a crime to "insult the religious sensitivities of believers." That law has received much less attention.

Head Of Russian Orthodox Church: Gay Marriage Is A Symbol Of The Apocalypse

Posted to Pravda's official YouTube channel.

(Tipped by JMG reader Kevin)

Russian Paratroopers And Priests Deploy Inflatable Orthodox Church

Secondary use: Bouncy Castle.

Source.

RUSSIA: 20 Protesters Arrested As Duma Approves Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Today the Russian Duma almost unanimously approved the first reading of the national bill to ban "homosexualist propaganda."

The bill was supported by 388 MPs with one vote against and one abstention. The ban was submitted by deputies from the Novosibirsk Region in Siberia, who had earlier introduced similar local regulations. If approved, it would introduce heavy fines for the promotion of homosexuality among children. Those found guilty of the offence could be fined up to 5000 roubles (about $160), but the fines increase 10-fold for officials and 100-fold for companies.

Hearings were initially scheduled for December, but got postponed twice which caused some MPs to suggest that there must be some kind of a homosexual conspiracy which is desperate to prevent the law from coming into force. Similar laws already exist in several Russian regions, including the country’s second-largest city St. Petersburg. The initiators of the federal ban say that homosexual propaganda in Russia is rife, both through the mass media and public action, and children are especially vulnerable as they cannot critically appraise “the avalanches of gay propaganda that fall upon them every day”.

LGBT activists outside the Duma were assaulted and pelted with eggs by members of the Russian Orthodox Church, but the Associated Press reports that it was "mostly" the gay protesters who were arrested.

AFA Headline Of The Day

The American Family Association is today cheering Russia's plan to criminalize "homosexual propaganda" and public displays of affection between people of the same gender.

As an evangelist who works in Russia,Tim Todd tells OneNewsNow that is quite a contrast to America, which has the most pro-homosexual president in the country's history. Todd, who heads Revival Fires International and has worked in Russia, understands that country's stand against the homosexual agenda. "America is opening the floodgate -- and if you want to know what God thinks about the sin of homosexuality, you can look at his urban renewal development plan in Sodom and Gomorrah," he points out. "It gives you a pretty good idea."  Todd says Russia has had an opportunity for years now to observe the homosexual agenda in America and Europe and learn firsthand what it has done to the culture. "[In America] there is open, blatant homosexuality on television and on the Internet where the homosexuals have come out of their hideouts in publicly proclaiming their sinful activity," he observes. Todd adds that he believes Russia has known all along the detriment homosexuality has on society -- and now they have proof in the United States.

Russian Orthodox Church Backs French Catholics In Marriage Battle

The Russian Orthodox Church has issued a letter vowing its solidarity with French Catholics in their battle against the same-sex marriage bill promised by President Francois Hollande.

In a letter, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the Moscow Patriarchate's external relations director, praised Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, president of France's bishops' conference, for his "consistent and uncompromising" opposition to same-sex marriage which represented "the truly Christian view" on the issue. He told the cardinal the Moscow Patriarchate was ready to work with French bishops "to protect the Gospel's ethical values". The Russian prelate added: "It is gratifying that the French, in faithfulness to traditional morality, have not remained indifferent to the French authorities' initiative, which is unacceptable to Christians."