Pride vs. prejudice
This Saturday, gay rights activists held a brief protest in central Moscow – and finally managed to not get arrested. Coming on the heels of the Tverskoy's court's decision to uphold the banning of this year's gay pride parade – which is officially deemed a security risk by Moscow authorities – Saturday's peaceful action has been branded a success both by organizers and various observers.
Organizer Nikolai Alexeyev told The Moscow News about the careful planning that went into avoiding the police for this year's event. "We didn't want the same old story to be broadcast everywhere," he said. "We didn't want there to be clashes or arrests, and we succeeded."
"I was asked to meet with city police officials prior to the event, but I didn't go," Alexeyev said. "In previous years, they just wanted information on where to arrest us, and I doubted this year would be any different."
In the Russian media, reactions to Saturday's event have been varied: wisome commentators have argued that banning gay pride in Moscow is blatantly unconstitutional, while others have pointed out that public displays of gay pride serve as an excuse for ridicule. "If [homosexuality] is a genetic characteristic, then it's nothing to be proud of, and sounding your horn about it in the public square (not as a means of protesting discrimination, but out of pure self-love) is stupid," Maya Kucherskaya wrote in Vedomosti. page 15
The argument that homosexuality is purely a personal matter, and therefore does not need to be publicly acknowledged as a legitimate lifestyle, crops up both in mainstream thought and among certain members of the local gay community. "There are gays in Moscow who claim that we don't need a pride parade in this city," Alexeyev said. "But if you ask these same people – would you go to a pride parade in London? Would you go to a pride parade in Sydney? – Most of them would say 'yes'. They see pride parades in other places as fun carnivals, and would love to attend. What they forget is that such carnivals weren't handed to London or Sydney's gay communities on a silver platter. Gay activists in such cities fought for the right to celebrate – they used to be beaten and arrested just like we have been."
Alexeyev pointed out that class divides often play a role in how politically active or inactive Russian gays tend to be. "Rich Russian gays have visas and money – they can hop on a plane and attend pride events anywhere in the world – which is why they don't exactly care what happens to the rest of us in Moscow," he said. "I am not oriented towards these people. In Russia, it's those with low social status who must fight for their rights. A rich gay man can easily bribe hospital officials to, for example, visit his boyfriend in a hospital. But what are ordinary people to do?"
The spirit of Saturday's protest was predicated on the idea that gays and other members of the LGBT community must continue engaging in active social protest on the ground. "Freedom is not free! The LGBT's are ready to fight!" read some of their placards. And though Moscow's gay community is eagerly awaiting a decision of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the bans of previous gay pride events in the city, their main message is geared toward changing local attitudes.
"The object of our appeals should be Russian society, as opposed to the Western establishment and Western institutions," Igor Yasin, a participant of the protest, wrote on Socialistworld.ru. "A decision by the European Court of Human Rights may force Moscow authorities toward some measures of appeasement, but they won't change society's widespread homophobia."
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Tommy
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