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EUROPE
Moscow Pride Organizer Guilty
of Disobeying Cops
Chief Moscow Pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev
was found guilty June 9 of disobeying police orders
regarding traffic control at the May 27 Pride rally
outside City Hall.
The ralliers were protesting Mayor Yuri
Luzhkov’s refusal to issue a parade permit. Luzhkov
has called gay parades “satanic.”
Alekseev was arrested as soon as he arrived at
the rally. Hundreds of police officers proceeded to
watch anti-gay protesters punch and kick activists,
foreign dignitaries and European parliamentarians
who had gathered for the event.
Alekseev was fined about $39, the same punish­
ment given to fellow activist Nikolai Khramov a
day earlier by the same court. Alekseev is refusing
to pay the fine and will appeal to the Tverskoy
District Court.
“The court session [was] a farce,” he said. “The
judge refused to admit photo and video evidence
proving that we had not disturbed law and order.
1 am ready to go up to the European Court of
Human Rights if necessary to prove that I am
innocent and that all the charges against me were
fabricated."
Alekseev already has a case pending before the
Euro court, challenging Luzhkovs ban of last year’s
Pride march.
In a similar case from Poland, the court recent­
ly ruled that a ban on Warsaw’s 2005 Pride march
violated the European Convention on Human
Rights’ guarantee of freedom of association and
assembly, its prohibition on discrimination and its
guarantee of a right to an effective remedy.
100.000 March in Rome
About 100,000 people took part in Rome’s Gay
Pride parade June 16.
The march, led by transgender MP Vladimir
Luxuria, began at St. Paul’s Gate and ended two
miles away in the square of the Basilica of St. John
Lateran, site of the pope’s office in his capacity as
bishop of Rome. Organizers called for passage of
Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s civil union bill,
which has been languishing in Parliament.
For the first time, the national government’s
Council of Ministers sponsored some Pride events,
though not the parade.
Thankjou
It took 800 police officers to protect it, and the
arrest of 108 counterprotesters, but the June 9 gay
Pride parade in Bucharest, Romania, was a success.
Officers tear-gassed hundreds of anti-gay
protesters who threw rocks, fireworks, garbage, eggs
and tomatoes at the 500 marchers. No injuries were
reported.
Pride organizers called for anti-discrimination
protections and legalization of same-sex partnerships.
“The police did...very professional wojk,” said
Maxim Anmeghichean, programs director of the
European branch of the International Lesbian and
Gay Association. “The participants were guarded
by tall iron police trucks on one side, which, being
literally half a meter behind each other, formed a
protection fence. Hundreds of policemen stixxl on
the other side of the march, also forming a live
fence of protection.”
Since most of last year’s attacks on marchers
occurred in subway stations after the parade, police
cleared the metro stops of neo-Nazis before allow­
ing the marchers tp disperse this year.
Colombia Passes Partnership Law,
Then Kills It
Colombia’s Congress passed then killed a same-
sex partnership bill in June. President Alvaro
Uribe, a conservative Catholic, had promised to
sign it into law.
JAED TOLEDO
so much, Kim!
Bucharest Pride Succeeds
with Heavy Police Protection
R ealty T rust
3902 NE SANDY BLVD. PORTLAND
High-ranking political figures joined a record 3 million people at Pride in Sao Paulo, Brazil.