Gay Pride banned in Moscow for a century

[Teox]

Moscow's top court has upheld a ban on gay pride marches in the Russian capital for the next 100 years.

Earlier Russia's best-known gay rights campaigner, Nikolay Alexeyev, had gone to court hoping to overturn the city council's ban on gay parades.

Amazed they are not concerned with backlash.

[Bookworm]

Human Rights are going backwards in Russia, if they ever existed at all that is. It wouldn't surprise me if the Gulag camps are still quietly in operation!

[princealbertofb]

Well the court also condemned the three women singers (Pussy Riot) who sang against Putin in a church, on grounds that are honestly quite unreasonable for an ex communist country.

[StanTheMan]

That's Mother Russia. I feel sorry for people who are living there.

[Teox]

The church & the president are behind that ridiculous charge, take them out of the equation, the whole case goes away. Russier have admitted they are still in the bronze age.

[matty7]

they had communism in Russia and that didnt last - the people win in the end , it just takes time as always....and in russia it will prob take some people goin missising and martyrs along with jail terms,,, but it will change im sure

[Pix]

As far as I can tell, little has changed in Russia since the collapse of communism save the government stopped taking care of or protecting people so that there's a lot more crime & poverty while the leaders continue to benefit (as they've always done, they just did away with the pretense that serving their own individual good was "the good of society" when they did away with official Leninism). But their criminal justice system remains as barbaric as ever, as do many other aspects of society. (I've heard horror stories about tourists--especially American--that go to the smaller towns in Russia as well, though to be fair America has some horror stories of its own that aren't all that different.)

One of the few positive changes that came with the end of Communism was the decriminalization of homosexuality. Unfortunately their Russian Orthodox seems to have acquired power over the government & people that our Christian Right is still only attempting to do (though our Christian Right has far too much power over politics as well) and gays are suffering for it. They like to see things like gay rights, feminism, and other progressive directions as "Westernization" and thus a good patriotic Russian opposes these things (men on man sexual abuse rampant in their military and the duo Tatu not withstanding). Heck, their church has even had some limited success in getting Western Christians who come to preach in Russia declared cults and thus socially & politically persecuted, because they really don't like Westerners (though they've also exerted pressure against Eastern religions as well).

Of course it's not the ideology, it's the values. Their extreme social conservatism will be practiced no matter what kind of ideology prevails (ironically, many US conservatives would praise it instead of condemning it for the most part if they actually knew what it was like). Viet Nam is Leninist and far superior to what Russia ever was when it comes to treating people decently (not to say they're perfect, and gods help anyone who criticizes their government while in the country) and they're even talking about full equality for gays today.

[TimmyThink]

I read this earlier today and thought someone was trolling but I guess not. :frown:

On the other side epic party in 2112 ( bad joke I know but it's all I got in a fucked up situation)

[Rainbowmum]

Disgusting................

[fenris]

I think russia has a triple problem.... a dictator, their church and an ambiguous relationship between rich and poor that drives the poor participate into the churches. The Church in Russia is still much more stone age like the Catholic Church, and this combination is very dangerous

I spoked a while ago with a bisexual russian guy by mail.... and all messages had to be encrypted, using a packer and password protected. The gay and bisexual community has fears..... the laws in this country are against their own people. I think what happened there is underestimated by Western countries