Football/Soccer Fans Against Homophobia. Gay Voices News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Towleroad. Gay rights participants who were taking part in an unapproved pride parade in Saint Petersburg, Russia today were attacked by a group of anti-gay protesters. 14 LGBT activists were arrested as were some of the anti0gay attackers. Russia's most highly visible gay rights advocate Nikolai Alekseyev was one of the jailed but was released soon after. The AP reports : "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.
Petersburg," said Nikolai Alekseyev, Russia's highest profile gay rights activist, who was himself briefly detained. 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.