RUSSIA: Anti-Gay Pol Calls Eurovision Star "Traitor To The Motherland" For Daring To Hug And Defend Conchita Wurst

Last month Russia's Polina Gagarina took second place at Eurovision 2015, earning the highest score in her nation's history, including when they won in 2008. But according to notorious anti-gay nutjob Vitaly Milonov, she is a "traitor to the motherland" for hugging Conchita Wurst at the contest and then defending Conchita against critics. Here is Milonov's rant:

Who gave her the right to represent Russia? She represents only the private media structure, where Christian values are not on the first place. The results are always falsified, the winner of Eurovision has no relation to talent. When Russia proclaimed its Christian values and went against the propoganda of sodomy, a bearded pervert in women’s clothes went on to win Eurovision. Why did Gagarina, a married woman, kiss another man? What is so precious in hugging a mentally sick pervert? It was on purpose, because this is a condition of the contest to push a country as deep as possible, excuse me, into Euro-shit, using crude ways to affect the teenagers. I criticised Gagarina’s kiss with this pervert, which she was doing with the name of Russia, but she immediately started arguing with us. Gagarina became part of the propaganda and she is a traitor of the Motherland – she betrayed Russia for some carpets, medals or something else … so she could become a propagander of Western sodomic values.

Milonov is the author of Russia's ban on "homosexual propaganda" and it's possible that he could bring charges against Gagarina. He and his army of goons from the Russian Orthodox Church regularly crash LGBT events and violence has resulted on some occasions.

(Tipped by JMG reader Luis)

RUSSIA: Anti-Gay Lawmaker Vitaly Milonov Proposes Ban On Shirtless Men

Via RT.com:

St Petersburg lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, known for his orthodox stance and anti-gay campaigning, has prepared a bill imposing fines for “nudity or unethical attire” in public places. The bill elucidates this as “either absence of clothes or nudity of either upper or lower parts of the body” for men and women alike. The list of “unethical clothing” includes men’s and women’s underwear and swimsuits. Milonov noted in explanations that the definition of swimwear and underwear can be found in the state register of industrial standards. Violation of the bill must be punished with an administrative fine between 1,000 and 3,000 rubles ($20-30). The lawmaker emphasized the ban was only applicable outside beaches and other “zones of public recreation.” He also said that if the bill is passed and positively assessed by citizens, the St. Petersburg legislative assembly would prepare a similar draft for the whole Russian Federation.

Milonov regularly shows up at gay events with an entourage of goons and violence has occasionally resulted.

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: Police Raid Nightclub Owned By Lesbians Who Trolled Anti-Gay Lawmaker

Early this month I reported that the owners of a lesbian nightclub in St. Petersburg had an in-flight encounter with infamous anti-gay politician Vitaly Milonov:

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."

Following that incident an anti-gay group called "Moscow Isn't Sodom And Petersburg Isn't Gomorrah" filed complaints that over 500 of the nightclub's fans on social media are underage, which would make promoting the club online a federal offense under Russia's so-called propaganda laws. A police raid soon followed:

“I have every reason to believe,” the scripted complaint reads, “that the promotional activities carried out at the lesbian club Infinity pose a serious threat to the physical and mental health of minors who manage to enter the establishment.” The anti-gay group makes no secret of why it targeted club Infinity, citing the “kissing selfies” incident with Milonov on the airplane. According to Vitaly Cherkasov, a lawyer at the Russian human rights organization Agora, police raided the club after receiving roughly 100 complaints from local residents about the supposed presence of minors and illegal drugs. Police have also called in for questioning the nightclub’s general director and social media administrator. Cherkasov says Infinity’s owners believe the police investigation is tied directly to the “kissing selfies” incident earlier this month.

(Tipped by JMG reader Mike)

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: Anti-Gay Lawmaker Calls From Banning Apple CEO Tim Cook "For Life"

"What could he bring us? The ebola virus, AIDS, gonorrhea? They all have unseemly ties over there. Ban him for life." - St. Petersburg lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, calling for Russia to ban Apple CEO Tim Cook from ever visiting. Milonov, who is partly responsible for Russia's ban on "gay propaganda," has led numerous anti-gay demonstrations, some of which have resulted in violence against LGBT Russians.

RUSSIA: Anti-Gay Lawmaker Tells Postal Service To Reject Tom Of Finland Stamps

Notorious anti-gay lawmaker Vitaly Milonov has demanded that Russia's postal service refuse to deliver letters that bear the Tom Of Finland stamps recently issued by Finland's government.

Speaking to the TASS news agency, he said: “They are basically elements of homosexual propaganda, which is banned in our country.” “I ask the leadership of Russian Post to pay close attention to this request. In addition, I urge the Finns themselves, our close neighbours, to refrain from using these stamps when sending letters to Russia.” After the stamps went on sale on in September in Finland, Itella reported that it had received pre-orders from 178 countries, and that the range of stamps were the best selling in its history.

Milonov has led numerous anti-gay demonstrations, some of which have resulted in violence against LGBT Russians. If you ordered any of those stamps, maybe you should send Milonov a postcard.

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: Anti-Gay Lawmaker Denounces Eurovision As Gay Propaganda

Via the Guardian:

St Petersburg legislator Vitaly Milonov – who sponsored a local law against homosexual propaganda in 2011 that helped pave the way for a similar federal law last year – has written a letter to Russia's Eurovision selection committee asking it not to send Russian musicians to the 2014 competition in Copenhagen in May. Calling the event a "Europe-wide gay parade," Milonov argued that Russian performers' participation would "contradict the path of cultural and moral renewal that Russia stands on today". In a tweet, the lawmaker called for a full boycott of the "Sodom show". "Even just broadcasting the competition in Russia could insult millions of Russians," Milonov said in the letter, according to a statement from his press service. "The participation of the obvious transvestite and hermaphrodite Conchita Wurst on the same stage as Russian singers on live television is blatant propaganda of homosexuality and spiritual decay."

Milonov later tweeted that a boycott wasn't necessary but "that pervert from Austria" should be banned from competing.

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: 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."

Stephen Fry Vs MP Vitaly Milonov, Author Of Russia's "Homosexual Propaganda" Bill

You will love this. 

Russia Suspends Adoptions To Sweden

"The perverts? No, it is unacceptable. Homosexuals are 'perverts' and should absolutely not be allowed to adopt children. Children who grow up in that kind of environment are destroyed psychologically." - Russian MP Vitaly Milonov, speaking to Swedish television after Russia suspended adoptions to Sweden because of the legality of same-sex marriage there.

The Local has more:

"It's terrible. We have 13 children in Russian orphanages today who have been offered to parents in Sweden who they have actually met," said Jonas Friberg at the Adoptioncentrum agency in Sweden to Sveriges Television (SVT). Representatives of the Russian authorities and the Swedish embassy met yesterday to discuss the legal situation with regard to adoptions of Russian children. Russia is seeking to sign agreements with individual countries to ensure that Russian children do not come to LGBT parents, according to the SVT report.

Author Of Russia's Anti-Gay "Propaganda" Bill Crashes LGBT Film Festival

Gay Star News reports that Vitaly Milonov, the author of Russia's "homosexual propaganda" ban, yesterday crashed an LGBT film festival in St. Petersburg.

The homophobic United Russia city parliament deputy Vitaly Milonov reportedly arrived with an entourage of five to six people calling guests 'animals, 'un-Russian' and 'faggots', according to QueerFest organizers. The Russian lawmaker, who co-sponsored the 'non-traditional relationships' law, previously said a gay activist must die for his 'extremism'. According to organizers, Milonov and his group also shoved around two guests, slapping them in the face. After Milonov and his group started attacking guests, police reportedly arrived shortly after, harassing venue owners to show ownership papers.

Queer Fest reports that the police left after "finding no cause for action and everything in order."  Organizers acknowledge that merely holding their event puts them at risk of fines and arrests. Theirs is the first LGBT event to test Russia's new law.

Tweets Of The Day - Lady Gaga

RUSSIA: Madonna And Lady Gaga May Face Visa Charges Because GAY

The Guardian has the story: 

The office of Russia's prosecutor general has issued a statement confirming that neither singer obtained an appropriate visa prior to performing there last year. Madonna, who played in August 2012, and Gaga, who appeared in December, travelled under cultural-exchange visas. These documents "do not grant their bearers the right to engage in any commercial activity," authorities said. According to the Russian legal information agency, prosecutors are now considering asking Russia's foreign ministry or federal migration service to press charges.  As any foreigner who has visited Moscow will know, Russian immigration can be extremely complicated. But Gaga and Madonna's mistakes weren't just discovered by accident: prosecutors launched their investigation only after being contacted by one of the singers' most outspoken enemies. The man in question was Vitaly Milonov, who serves in St Petersburg's municipal legislature and authored St Petersburg's law banning gay "propaganda" – a model for recent legislation passed by the Duma.