RUSSIA: Anti-Gay Lawmaker Fails To Keep LGBT Contingent Out Of May Day March

Via Russia's state-funded RT News:

Police in St. Petersburg wouldn't allow controversial legislator Vitaly Milonov, best known for his anti-gay stance, to interfere with a gay pride march on May Day. He tried to stop the march on the grounds of a 'gay propaganda' law he himself sponsored. An LGBT activists' column was part of Friday's massive rally, which marched along Nevsky Prospect, the city's main street. More than 90,000 people from all ranges of the political spectrum participated, from the ruling United Russia party to Communists and various small opposition groups. Milonov along with a group of about a dozen of supporters tried to block the gay pride column, which was carrying rainbow flags and banners calling for tolerance, including one depiction of the politician himself. He wanted to stop the activists, saying they were violating a controversial law he sponsored a few years ago, which bans propaganda of gay lifestyle to minors, and brought some minors among his supporters to make his case, the Fontanka newspaper reported. His other complaint was about Ukrainian and American flags being carried by another part of the marching column allied with the LGBT activists.

RUSSIA: Steve Jobs Memorial Torn Down Because Apple CEO Tim Cook Came Out

Via Business Insider:

Residents of Saint Petersburg have reportedly torn down a giant interactive iPhone memorial that commemorated the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs after the company's current CEO, Tim Cook, came out as gay on Thursday. Business FM Radio reports that the company that originally funded the memorial, ZEFS, decided to tear it down after Cook said he was proud to be gay. The six-foot tall memorial was erected in 2013 to celebrate Steve Jobs' life. It featured a large screen that showcased moments from Jobs' life, as well as scrolling quotations from his speeches and a QR code on the back that would take people who scanned it to a website.

The chairman of the company that installed the memorial said that it might return with a message that instructs Russians not to buy Apple products. (Tipped by JMG reader Alan)

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.

RUSSIA: St. Petersburg Court Rules That Local LGBT Group Is A Spy Organization

A court in St. Petersburg today ruled that Coming Out, a local Russian LGBT rights group, is a de facto spy organization because it receives funding from outside the country. Via Buzzfeed:

The group is one of hundreds of human rights organizations that has had this label slapped on them or been taken to court by government officials for failing to register voluntarily under a 2012 law that requires NGOs who receive funding from abroad to declare themselves “foreign agents.” The Justice Ministry registered five new groups as foreign agents this week alone. Coming Out had been fighting the designation in court for 16 months. “[Printing] the label ‘foreign agent’ on all the public materials of the organization would be a sign for wider society that the idea of protecting the rights of LGBT people is something ‘foreign,’ and, therefore unnecessary and even harmful,” said the group in a statement on its Facebook page.

The judge's ruling reportedly declares that Coming Out violates the rights of "persons with a traditional sexual orientation." Coming Out plans to appeal the decision.

RUSSIA: Anti-Gay Social Media Group Posts Reward To Out LGBT Teachers

Queer Russia reports:

A new St. Petersburg based antigay group emerged on a popular Russian social network Vkontakte has launched an on-line campaign offering an equivalent of $150 for reporting “confirmed” information on LGBT school teachers. The group aims to stop “gay propaganda to minors” in schools and dismiss gay teachers with the help of local authorities. The announcement published on the group’s page Vkontakte urges people to collect and send in any public information about LGBT teachers who are, “explicitly or implicitly”, open about their own sexual orientation on the internet and to their schoolchildren.

The group refuses to accept any rumors or slander and stresses that the information must be available in the open sources so that the group’s activity does not violate the Russian law on collecting personal data without a person’s consent. The announcement claims that such open information can be “threatening to psyche and mind of children who may be around such people”. The group claims to have connections with the Russian authorities in order to perform dismissals “without any bullying, homophobia or calls to violence”, but still enforcing the “gay propaganda to minors ban law”.

The group claims to have be given the names of six teachers within the first 24 hours of their post.

RUSSIA: Bomb Threat Delays St. Petersburg LGBT Film Festival

Via Queer Russia:

The grand festival opening scheduled for the evening of November, 21 is disrupted. A call of a bomb threat in the “Warshavsky Express” cinema is delaying the opening ceremony and screening of the first film of the festival. With all guests being evaquated, police began checking up the building. About 200 guests arrived at the opening. Aggressive opponents of LGBT also gathered near the cinema, but police is holding them back. After checking, the building is still going to host the first screening, Rosbalt reports.

RUSSIA: Anti-Gay MP Vitaly Milonov Crashes & Halts Halloween Party

He doesn't hate gay people, he hates everything.

Lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, known as the co-author of the St. Petersburg's anti-gay legislation, has disrupted a Halloween party in one of the city's parks. United Russia deputy Milonov arrived at Internationalists Park on Thursday in the Kupchino district where about 1,000 people were celebrating Halloween with pumpkin carving contest and a fireworks display, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported Friday. Milonov and a few of his supporters showed up shortly after the audience had jokingly summoned the devil and called a halt to the "sabbath." He called the police and the organizers were subsequently forced to stop the event "due to technical reasons."

Milonov claims he was "defending the cross."

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)