NEWSLINK: Riot Police Stand By and Watch Attack on Homosexual Activists

Russian Duma Building

[“Riot Police Stand By and Watch Attack on LGBT Activists” – Vedomosti – January 31, 2013]

Vedomosti reports on a demonstration in front of the Duma featuring homosexual behavior in the form of same-sex kissing, broken up by “Orthodox fundamentalists,” with police reportedly then arresting only the homosexual demonstrators:

… Russian authorities seem to have given up their monopoly on the use of force, allowing an unofficial group to break up a peaceful lesbian-gay-bisexual-transvestite (LGBT) rally …

With the current Russian laws blocking virtually any opportunity for people to publicly express their views on political issues, a group of LGBT activists chose to gather outside the Duma to stage a … kiss-in protest against a planned bill that would ban “homosexual propaganda.”

* * *

Photographs show … the riot police stood by and watched … as a group of “Orthodox fundamentalists” attacked the gay protesters. When they finally intervened, they selectively arrested the participants of the “unsanctioned rally” ­ the gay couples who … kiss[ed] in public ­ and left their attackers alone.

Vedemosti does not indicate what form the physical contact between rival demonstrators took, or specifically how the counter-demonstrators were able to “break up” the homosexual kissing.  The article does indicate that the police moved in, and that the original kissing demonstrators apparently were still present, since the police arrested them.

Addressing the Duma bill, Vedemosti does point out that a ban on the promotion of homosexuality to minors could be leveraged to ban all promotion of homosexuality, if an audience could not be guaranteed to be limited to adults:

Any bill restricting information to minors leads to the impossibility of raising the issue publicly at all because any public platform might be accessed by underage citizens. A bill like this shuts people up …

[no direct, non-subscription link available to English-language version, or original Russian version]

Comment