The newspapers and websites are full with articles about Moscows surpressed Gay Pride from yesterday. While I have been recovering from my girlfriends birthdayparty-hangover (where we had some gay guests as well) on a datcha outside of Moscow, others were fighting for their “human right” to be and live homosexual.

I am not sure, if it is a co-incident, but it may show some insenstitivity of choosing the date by the organizers of the gay pride, the russian orthodox church was celebrating Pentecost as well yesterday, which may have added some fuel to the opposing radical orthodox demonstrators on site.

As I have not been there myself I would like to present you with some materials I have found on other sites and at the end I will give a short comment, which is my personal opinion of the situation between gays and heteros in Russia.

CNN:

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.

Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 but tolerance is not widespread.

“It (homosexuality) is satanic,” he told Reuters. One man holding a crucifix threatened to beat-up any gay person he saw.”

Here is the full article:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/27/russia.gayrights.reut/

Video on CNN.com

Here is a large collection of articles and sites about gays in Russia and the gay pride parade:
http://www.russophile.com/russia_blog/5391-arrests_assaults_gay_pride_protest_parade_moscow_russia.html

Some photos from the web:

Check URBAN POSTINGS Flickr Page for more….
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanpostings/

Pre-Protest in Feb, when mayor Lushkov banned the parade

Check URBAN POSTINGS Flickr Page for more….
http://www.flickr.com/photos/outrage/

Nationalist is about to punch English gay activist on Moscow Gay Pride 2007
From ADACRI on FLickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adacri/

Videos from Youtube:

BBC Video on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-qhnkKuG7A

Comment:

As usual the outcry in the West is loud. Russia is not democratic, its not respecting the human rights and its politicians suppress any opposition with violence and any other means they have. The media puts the opponents Putin and mayor Lushkov in one camp, even though its widely known (even by these correspondents) that they dislike each other a lot and their political views are much different from each other. One should keep in mind, that Russia is only “free” since about 18 years now. Before many things, not only homosexuality were handled much different. Homosexuality was even considered a crime, although some of the communist party members were obviously enjoying male company more than women (at least that is what one hears from locals). Nowadays Russia has changed, but the process is still going on and its going to be a very long one. Of course the government could be more liberal, but it is fearing the consequences and probably that is not so wrong. Russia being such a large and wild country with so many cultures living under the same roof, some of these cultures being much different from what we know in Europe it is not comparable with Europe or the US.

That being said, I don’t want to justify the governments opinion and treatment of the gay. It is even more cynical, knowing that there are homosexual politicians among Russian leaders nowadays as well, but they are just not showing their sexual preference openly to everyone, fearing repression by fellow party members or the public. There are further more homosexuals in leading positions in the Russian economy and of course even more in the arts. I’d go that far to say, that the artistic sector is almost completely controlled by gays at this time.

I have recently seen a program on Russian TV (NTV), where two opponents are put together and they discuss their issues with each other. This one was about homosexuality and the gay pride. Viewers from all over Russia can call in and give their vote. The results can be seen at the bottom of the screen and it was very interesting to watch the development, during the program. At the end, the votes were about 45% pro gay and the rest for the radical who spoke on the other side. I don’t remember well, but I think that radical was Shirinovsky. Considering that some of the voters may have not been educated well and probably believe the horror stories spread by these ultra nationalists and religious people, e.g. “Gays approach your children on the playground and try to abuse them”, this was a very good result in my opinion. I would have expected a much lower pro gay percentage and I think this is totally comparable with other European countries.

Nevertheless, homosexuality, as other controversial subjects in Russian culture, are a hot topic of discussion, even within groups of educated people. I think the process will take much more time and as usual the West has way too high expectations. At this point every Russian critic should ask himself, how long it took homosexuals to get accepted in Europe and the US. I think, it was a much longer process than 18 years and its actually still causing problems in some European or US regions (just imagine the religious Southern US states). On the other hand ultra nationalist and religious scare me, as every fanatic is scaring the shit out of me. I don’t understand, why the government is abusing and using these dumb people on any occasion, to give a hard kick to the Russian opposition. I furthermore don’t understand that, because I believe Putin and his government did a great job in the past 7 years (in terms of stabilizing the country and the economy). They seem widely accepted and even honored for that, by the Russian public. It just doesn’t want to go into my head, why this government is using every occasion to beat up some small opposition groups (by OMON police or using these radical groups) in front of running foreign cameras. I really don’t understand that self-destroying PR behavior, especially since there doesn’t seem to be a real reason for it. Or is there something I don’t know? Is the Russian government really so paranoid about these little opposition groups and expecting another flowery colored, with foreign money financed, revolution?

We curerently have humid hot air with about 28-30 C. Tonight (from Wed to Thu) cold air is pushing in from the North. As usual there will be thunderstorms between the cold and hot air (before the coldfront). These thunderstorms can be very heavy since we have this humid and warm air.
Be aware of possible heavy thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow first half of the day. Don’t park your car in lower areas where the water can’t flow off easily and be careful with trees (there will be heavy winds). Stay safe and dry.

When I left Moscow it was still snowing occasionally. Four weeks later when I return, we have about 30 C and sunshine. Summertime is back in Moscow. Lets hope it will hold longer than last years 2 weeks of hotness within a rainy and cold summer.
So what do you do on a summer evening these days? There are plenty of things. You can go for a promenade on Tverskaya or the area around Red Square and Kremlin. You’ll find many interesting things to see and lots of people on the streets at night these days. You can also visit some of the cities cafes and restaurants, especially the ones where you can sit outside of course. Try the famous Coffemania, near the Music Conservatory on Bol. Nikitsky or the French Styled little tables infront of Zhan-Zhak on Nikitsky Blvd (note, one is Bol. Nikitsky, the other one is around the corner and called Nikitsky Boulevard. 2 different streets with the similar name).

Addresses:

Coffemania near Music Conservatory
Bolshaya Nikitskaya street, building 13/6
Open 24h - Metro Teatralnaya
Its “the” terrace in Moscow, but unfortunately you’ll have to wait about 45 min in average until you get a table.

Zhan-Zhak
Nikitsky Bulvar, #12
Tel: 290-3886. Open 24 hours.
Metro: Arbatskaya

For all of your New York fans, here is a new project we just completed and handed over to our client. Its a portal called Travelgoat
. The site offers audio stories and information about location of the beaten tourist tracks. You can not only download all stories as MP3’s to your IPOD, along with a map and a playlist, but you can also record your own stories online. By the way, this online recording through a web-browser is a technology, which not many people got to work yet. Also converting these flash files to MP3 ain’t an easy task. If you need help or advice with this, contact our company CYGEN at www.cygen.de. Anyway, enjoy the Travelgoat and all of these fantastic stories about the REAL New York…

http://www.travelgoat.com

One or the other thing may still not work, because their in-house programmer is still working on adjusting and enhancing the site.