ΑΓΙΑ ΠΕΤΡΟΥΠΟΛΗ. "ΟΧΙ" ΣΤΗΝ ΠΟΡΕΙΑ ΤΩΝ ΟΜΟΦΥΛΟΦΙΛΩΝ, "ΝΑΙ" ΣΤΗΝ ΠΟΡΕΙΑ ΤΩΝ ΟΜΟΦΥΛΟΦΟΒΙΚΩΝ

ST. PETERSBURG, June 23, 2010 (GayRussia/UK Gay News) – City Hall in St. Petersburg has today told organisers of Saturday’s Gay Pride for the second time in a week that the parade cannot go ahead. Last Friday, the authorities rejected the original proposal for the parade saying that there was “construction work” on the route.
A second application was submitted to City Hall proposing three possible routes, but these have now been rejected.
However, it emerged yesterday that Molodaya (Young Guard), the youth faction of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, had been given the green light by officials for an “anti-Gay Pride” march in support of traditional family values, which will go ahead on the same day as the banned Pride march.
“This is a joke,” fumed Maria Efremenkova, who heads the St. Petersburg Gay Pride committee.
“The march that is being permitted is against the rights of LGBT people throughout Russia,” she added.
An emergency appeal to the courts is being considered. But as St. Petersburg Lawyer Dmitri Bartnev put it: “Applying to court before the Pride is technically possible, but it is technically impossible to get an enforceable judgment before the event.”
Pride organisers appealed last week for support to the UK Embassy and 12 other Embassies of European Union member states – plus the United States, Canada, Norway and Switzerland.
However, none has so far issued any public statement.
“We are extremely disappointed by the attitude of foreign diplomacies,” confessed Ms. Efremenkova. “We didn’t ask anything more than what the same Embassies did in Vilnius, Bucharest, Belgrade or Bratislava when they issued a public statement of support to local Pride organizers.”
Gays in St. Petersburg cannot understand why the British government can say that it supports LGBT rights across the world, and hosts a 10 Downing Street reception to announce it, yet cannot even send a message of support to the city’s Pride.
“We are very disappointed in the new Cameron government in London,” Ms. Efremenkova admitted.
In a joint statement last week, InterPride, the International Association of Pride organisers, and the IDAHO Committee condemned the banned which they pointed out, contradicts the international obligations of Russia vis-à-vis the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
St Petersburg is the fourth city in Russia to officially ban a Gay Pride parade, after Moscow, Tambov and Ryazan. Currently, no public action that has been officially applied for by LGBT activists has ever been allowed in the country.
But at the end of last month, activists in Moscow managed to outwit the homophobic mayor – and his police force –to stage a short 10-minute march. The 30 participants had dispersed by the time to police arrived.
St. Petersburg organisers are keeping their detailed plans very much to themselves. But they continue their pledge to defy the ban and to march.
“We will march,” Ms. Efremenkova promised. “We have a duty to defy injustice like we already did last month in Minsk and Moscow.
“The St Petersburg authorities decided to put an embargo on our civil rights and this is absolutely unacceptable,” she insisted.
“There are a few of us ready to face arrest, detention and beating – but we have no intention to give up on our civil rights at all,” she continued, adding that a seminar is planned on the eve of the Pride to explain to participants how to react in case they are arrested.