Moscow court upholds hundred-year ban on gay pride

A court in Moscow has upheld the decision to deny requests for the next hundred years of pride events.

Tverskoy district court said it was lawful for the Russian capital’s municipal government to decline the 102 requests filed by gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseev for pride marches every year until 2112, RT said.

Mr Alekseev confirmed that they would pursue the decision to the Moscow City Court Presidium and the European Court of Human Rights.

He said: “They refuse our requests every time, but in Strasbourg they recognize these rulings as unlawful. But time does not stand still, we ask for a new event and again they refuse us.”

Stonewall International Officer Jasmine O’Connor said of today’s news: “It’s a matter of grave concern that Moscow’s municipal government has again marginalised the city’s gay community.

“It’s another sign of the dire situation for Russia’s 8.5 million lesbian, gay and bisexual people, whose human rights are routinely abused by the government and police. We’ll continue to press the British government to do all it can to confront homophobic human rights abuses worldwide.”

In May, a total of 40 people, mostly gay rights activists, were detained in Moscow after they attempted to hold two demonstrations demanding the right to hold a gay pride parade in the capital.

Mr Alekseev had become the first person to be arrested and fined 5000 rubles under St Petersburg’s ‘gay propaganda’ law, which forbids talking about homosexuality “among minors”. The Russian parliament is now considering extending the anti-propaganda law nationwide.

• Dec 01 2023

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