250,000 sign petition against St Petersburg “gay propaganda” law. Nearly a quarter of a million people have signed a petition calling on world leaders to hold Russia to account for a draft law in St Petersburg which threatens to silence its gay community. The draft law would punish the promotion of LGBT lifestyles in public alongside paedophilia in Russia’s second largest city. The US and UK Governments have already issued statements expressing concern that the new fines would severely limit the freedom of expression and assembly by LGBT people. Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, said those statements were “inappropriate and inconsistent with the practice of interstate relations”. Now, 246,245 people have put their name to a letter organised by AllOut.org, which has been delivered to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Baroness Catherine Asthon and the Presidents of its LGBT Rights Intergroup, Michael Cashman and Ulrike Lunacek.
Russia : Don't Go There. We Will Not Be Silenced - AllOut.org. Russia Gay Pride Demonstrators Attacked, Detained In St. Petersburg (PHOTOS) ST.
PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) – Russian police on Saturday detained 14 gay rights activists trying to hold an unsanctioned demonstration in St. Petersburg, as well as one person suspected of attacking the protesters. (Scroll down for photos) Police detained two groups of activists protesting their lack of rights in two central districts of the city. An Associated Press photographer saw unidentified individuals attack the demonstrators, trying to seize their banners before police moved in. Attempts to hold Gay Pride rallies almost always end in violence in Russia. "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.
Activists held their protest beside a monument to city founder Peter the Great, "because Peter the Great founded a city with European values," Yuri Gavrikov, head of the Equality group said Friday. Loading Slideshow Police officers detain a gay rights activist during a St. News Desk: What’s Russian for “Homosexual Propaganda”? In a near unanimous vote on Wednesday, the St.
Petersburg city parliament passed the first draft of a law that would ban what the Russian press has labeled “homosexual propaganda.” Actually, and if we’re to be precise, the law would fine people for “public actions, aimed at propagandizing sodomy”—literally, “man-laying” in Russian—“lesbianism, bisexuality, [and] transgenderness among minors.” Violators would be subject to fines ranging from three thousand rubles (about $100), for individuals, to fifty-thousand rubles ($1,600), for organizations. The fines and language are the same for those propagandizing pedophilia, more or less inserting an equal sign between the two. The sponsor of the bill—it still has to go through two more votes to become law—is Vitaly Milonov, from the ruling United Party. Milonov’s colleagues chimed in, lumping sexual assault of a child in with consensual gay sex. The legislation, which was rushed through the local parliament, is not unique. St. Anti-Gay Law Stirs Fears in Russia.