February 24th, 2008
Fifteen years ago, Russia repealed its laws making male homosexuality a criminal offense. But those heady times were beginning to seem seem like a more distant memory when police and mobs violently attacked gay pride marchers in Moscow last year. Then in August, the Washington Post reported on deep divisions among Russia’s LGBT advocates, between those who pressed for more confrontational tactics against the rising tide of homophobia and others who felt that a more indirect approach was needed in order to avoid a harsh backlash.
Many of those advocates came together in January to launch a nationwide campaign to monitor discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The newly-formed Russian LGBT Alliance has also declared the week of March 15-31 as Russian Week against Homophobia (RWAHO). According to their press release:
Russian Week against Homophobia is a special attempt to attract public attention in a certain time-frame to the problem of homophobia and to its danger to the society as a whole. It’s a chance of responding to homophobic rhetoric by creating an area free from discrimination and hatred towards people.
…This year Russian Week against Homophobia will be held in major cities like Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Voronezh, Krasnodar, Omsk, Petrozavodsk, Rostov-na-Donu, Samara, Tumen, Cheylabinsk, etc.
During March 25-31 there will be seminars, panel discussions, meetings, film showings with debates, as well as other events targeted at homophobia elimination in Russian society. Also, signature drive for the “Manifest against Homophobia” started last year will be continued.
They really have their work cut out for them. This morning’s New York Times reported on Russia’s transformation into a de facto one-party state under President Vladimir Putin. Reports of violence, threats, intimidation and coercion against opposition parties have have guaranteed Putin’s remaining in power under a figurehead president. Homophobia also played a role in the propaganda campaign against opposition parties:
Meanwhile, a different kind of propaganda war was being waged on the streets. Russia has relatively conservative attitudes toward homosexuality, and all autumn long Nizhny Novgorod was blanketed with tens of thousands of leaflets saying that Mr. Nemtsov’s liberal, pro-Western opposition party, the Union of Right Forces, ardently favored gay rights and employed canvassers with AIDS. Neither was true.
The leaflets often included the name and phone number of a leader of the party’s regional candidate slate, Andrei Osipenko. Some had condoms attached and announced offers to send supporters to a gay-pride event in Amsterdam.
…
The party was refused advertising space on everything from billboards to newspapers to television. When Mr. Nemtsov tried to campaign in Nizhny Novgorod in the fall, no one would rent him a hall. In November, the party headquarters were ransacked and spray-painted with profanities and graffiti that called it the “Party of Gays.”
Hat Tip: Ruslan Porshnev, whose Anti-Dogma project is a member of the Russian LGBT Alliance.
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Romski
March 2nd, 2008
It’s amazing that people are still trying too hurt people at any cost!!!
Take the time too look at heterosexual sex. when it comes too oral sex, it’s a gay sexual act not hetero! And the funny thing is most hetero’s still are doing it. Their are a few more sexual acts that began with homosexuals that is used in everyday sex acts, but no one will EVER admitt too it!
Alexander
March 12th, 2008
Dear Sirs. According to reports in the Internet (http://www.rwaho.anti-fa.ru/) next sodmiÑ organizations planned to hold asocial and provocative actions, the so-called “Week against homophobia” in the period from 25 to 31 March. These activities are taking place with the support of extremist youth so-called “antifascist” organizations.
Conducting this kind of activities that flagrantly violate the rights of citizens of our country to freedom and moral development, could result clashes between extremists and people believers, as well as other opponents stand sodomy.
These organizations have already carried out a series of attacks on the citizens of Moscow February 14, 2008, and St. Petersburg, 07 March 2008. Do not rule out the possibility of committing crimes in the course of these activities.
The holding provocative events scheduled on the dates mentioned in such cities as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Krasnodar, Omsk, Petrozavodsk, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk and others.
We have started preparations for the breakdown of these activities with the volunteers in all the above cities.
Hopefully you wisely stop holding this kind of satanic activities on the territory of our country.
Chairman of the Committee for the prevention of the proliferation sodom sin
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