Who knows if Elton John will decide to go to Moscow. Last May, the singer declared in the Observer that he would go to Moscow, en masse, and the gay activists echoed him “We want you”. In Russia, homosexuals are not welcome, and only a few years ago being gay was a crime. Last year the first gay pride parade in Moscow’s history was beaten to a stop. Despite a ban by the authorities and protests of religious leaders, the activists decided to parade around the city. The Orthodox Church talked ofa “propaganda of sin” and the Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin stated that gay activists parading should have been fustigated. The participants of the gay pride didn’t care and they demonstrated despite the violence.
The case is not closed yet, actually, it has just been reopened. Activists’ advocates appealed to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and are one again ready to move into battle this year. The date of the new gay pride parade is set for May 27th, like last year, like 1993 when Eltsin decided that homosexuality was no longer a crime. City mayor Yuri Luzhkov didn’t think twice about it before announcing that he would never allow a gay parade in the capital city. “This kind of enlightenment” that gay groups want to bring to Russia supported by the West is “a satanic happening”; it is not appropriate to “propagate same-sex love, and blasphemy as if it is creativity and freedom of speech”. Luzhkov appreciated Patriarch Alexi II’s support in this difficult situation. In fact, the Russian church has expressed its opposition to such initiatives explaining through Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy head of Moscow Patriarchate department for External Church Relations, that: “in the 21st century people will realize the malignancy of perversions opposing the family in its natural form as bestowed by God” and that Luzhkov is “a responsible politician, who heeds the opinion of his people.”
Nikolai Alexeyev, who is among the organizers of the gay parade and was arrested last year, says the mayor’s statements are medieval, something that reminds him of the Inquisition. Alexeyev is optimistic: this year the gay pride parade will take place, and for good, without bans by the authorities, even though the sanguine mayor has already said no. This he argues is because there is the European Court and because it is impossible not to recognize that homosexual human rights were trampled on. And then, there is Putin who, after abandoning the manly spirit that has characterized him in the past months – who doesn’t remember him joking with the Israeli premier accused of sexual harassment? – entered the Russian history as the first president who made a public statement on homosexual human rights. “I respect – and will respect – freedom of people in all their manifestations” he said to Agence France Press journalist who asked him about the issue in the annual Kremlin press conference. And he continued explaining that his attitude “to sexual minorities is simple. It is connected with my fulfilling of my official obligations.”
Meanwhile the Russian gay pride parade lands in Berlin. “Mockba. Pride ‘06”, a documentary film on last May’s troubling parade will be premiered during the 57th Berlin International Film Festival, on February 11th. It will be in competition, both in the independent and in the popular film section. And who knows, next May 27th Elton John might keep his promise in a Gay Pride Concert dedicated to Russia, with love.