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A group of LGBT activists hosted an unofficial, unapproved Pride parade in St. Petersburg, Russia today when several of the participants were attacked by anti-gay protesters. 14 people, a mix of LGBT activists and their attackers, were arrested by police.
Among those arrested was Nikolai Alekseev (right, photo from one of Alekseev's earlier arrest), the man who has positioned himself as somewhat of a leader in the gay rights movement in Russia. He has since been released but his tweets from the day reflect the events as they occurred.
The Associated Press reported on the incident:
Attempts to hold gay pride rallies almost always end in violence in Russia. Authorities habitually refuse gay rights activists their constitutional right to assemble, particularly in Moscow, on the grounds that other people find it offensive.
"I've seen a lot of things in six years of holding such events in Moscow, but I've never seen such cynicism in St. Petersburg," said Nikolai Alekseyev, Russia's highest profile gay rights activist, who was himself briefly detained Saturday.
The activists in St. Petersburg held their protest beside a monument to city founder Peter the Great, "because Peter the Great founded a city with European values," said Yuri Gavrikov, head of the Equality group.
The full live blog about the situation is available at Gay Russia, and UK Gay News has extensive information about the incident.
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I literally just saw a documentary at Frameline called "East Bloc Love" mostly about attempts to have a Pride event (it's so repressive they really can't have a parade) in Minsk, Belarus. It lasted 10 minutes before they were busted. The one bright spot in the film is when they held EuroPride (a rotating Pride parade) in Warsaw... which was the first larger Pride parade held in former eastern block countries.
I don't really have anything to say about the repression because stories about that speak for themselves, and show how far we have to go in the former Soviet bloc. I think it's kinda strange, though, that the event is called Slavic Pride. If that isn't some kind of mis-translation, that name would seem to discriminate against St. Peterburg's non-Slavic LGBT people, who have to exist in significant numbers.