Dispatches from the Creation Wars

Russian Pride March Turns Violent

Posted by Ed Brayton on May 28, 2007
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This was certainly predictable. After 70 years of official atheism and suppression of the church, the Russian Orthodox Church has made a big comeback in Russia and they’re flaunting that power by beating up homosexuals. Color me unsurprised. After the mayor of Moscow refused to allow a gay pride march because homosexuality is “Satanic”, the march went ahead anyway and the police and anti-gay thugs decided to teach them a lesson:

Riot police detained gay rights activists as they tried to present a petition asking Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has called gay marches satanic acts, to lift a ban on the parade.

Nationalists and extreme Russian Orthodox believers held icons and denounced homosexuality as “evil” while a group of thick-set young men turned up with surgeon’s masks, which they said would protect them from the “gay disease.”

And the ones arrested, naturally, were the peaceful protesters, not the violent thugs. Mr. Orwell, call your office.

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Comments

  1. #1 Brandon
    May 28, 2007

    Weren’t homosexuals brutally oppressed in the Soviet Union as well? Heck, according to the article, homosexuality was a crime until 1993. It sounds to me, unfortunately, like this is hardly a new development.

  2. #2 Skip
    May 28, 2007

    One man holding a crucifix threatened to beat-up any gay person he saw.

    WAWJK — Who’s ass would Jesus kick?

  3. #3 Alex
    May 28, 2007

    Weren’t homosexuals brutally oppressed in the Soviet Union as well?

    Homosexuality was indeed seen as a bourgeois corruption that came from the West. Therefore, anyone gay was seen as likely to be a traitor to the State (ironically, McCarthist thinking tended to see American homosexuals as likely Communist spies at exactly this same time).

  4. #4 Costa
    May 29, 2007

    Does Russia have a right not to host a gay pride event?

  5. #5 Mithrandir
    May 29, 2007

    Does Russia have a right not to host a gay pride event?

    No, it does not (subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions). Institutions, and especially governments, have fewer legitimate rights than people do.

  6. #6 Richard Bartholomew
    May 29, 2007

    Weren’t homosexuals brutally oppressed in the Soviet Union as well?

    They made an exception for Guy Burgess, but the Russian communists are actually just another bunch of nationalists, and they also opposed the gay pride march.

    The Russian Orthodox church have also been pushing for a new approach to human rights. I keep an eye on the pro-Kremlin Interfax-Religion site, which has a lot of this kind of thing:

    According to the Church, gay propaganda is especially dangerous for the young men and women, who are sometimes particularly liable to it.

    ‘Aggressiveness in promoting gay ideas even under a human rights disguise is obviously provocative. The gay activist nave no respect for other people’s rights and do not even consider that what they do may offend others,’

    Incidentally, Peter Tatchell has been beaten up before – a few years ago he tried to arrest Robert Mugabe in Belgium, causing Mugabe to cower away from him in the back of his car. Unfortunately, Mugabe’s thugs then intervened.

  7. #7 Prup aka Jim Benton
    May 29, 2007

    The Polish Government has once again joined in. According to today’s NY DAILY NEWS:
    “Ewa Sowinska, the government-appointed children rights watchdog, said in a local magazine interview published yesterday that she believed the “Teletubbies” show promotes homosexuality.

    “I noticed [Tinky Winky] has a lady’s purse, but I didn’t realize he’s a boy,” Sowinska said. “Later I learned that this may have a homosexual undertone.”

    Falwell’s dead, but the malady lingers on.

    The story is at
    http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2007/05/29/2007-05-29_tinky_winkys_too_kinky_for_polish_govern-1.html