Tea and cakes could be the last-minute way to avoid trouble at Saturday's banned gay rights march, just hours ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest final.
Visiting British activist Peter Tatchell, who was badly beaten at a gay pride march on Tverskaya Ulitsa in 2007, has offered an open invitation to anti-gay Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov to meet and discuss their differences.
"We are not seeking confrontation," Tatchell said by telephone from London on Wednesday, before flying to Moscow. "I would ask Mayor Luzhkov to meet me and a delegation of Russian gay campaigners. We are seeking cooperation and an amicable solution. Dialogue with the mayor would be useful. I'm sure we can sort out these issues over a cup of tea and a cake at City Hall."
Beneath Tatchell's friendly approach, though, lies an iron will to change attitudes in what he calls "probably the most homophobic country in Europe", especially with the high-camp kitsch of Eurovision attracting thousands of lesbian and gay visitors to Moscow this weekend.
Tatchell added: "Given that the world's media will be in Moscow for the Eurovision Song Contest it would be a PR disaster for the authorities if they banned the parade, especially if marchers were arrested and beaten up. It would do untold damage to Russia's public image around the world.
"On the other hand, if they allow the march to go ahead then there will be no fuss and the mayor will win plaudits for his magnanimity and generosity."
Luzhkov was aware of the activists' request, but had refused to meet with them, an employee at City Hall's press office said by telephone on Thursday.
Sergei Tsoi, a City Hall spokesman, told reporters last week that the march, scheduled for Saturday noon in Alexandrovsky Sad, should not go ahead and would not be sanctioned by the authorities.
"The Moscow government is declaring that there has never been and never will be a gay parade in Moscow," he said. He went on to accuse marchers of "destroying the moral foundations of our society" and said plans for protestors to gather without permission "threatened the lives and security of Muscovites and guests to the capital".
Tsoi said that the authorities' position was backed by the Russian Orthodox Church, youth and veterans' groups and multi-cultural societies, warning that any unauthorised parade would be broken up by police.
Moscow-based march organiser Nikolai Alexeyev claimed that 500 activists were ready to attend a legitimate rally, but still expects at least 100 protesters to defy the ban and risk arrest to make their point.
That could have a knock-on effect for the glitzy Eurovision final at the Olimpiisky Stadium across town. Dutch singer Gordon Heukenroth, frontman of the group The Toppers, has vowed he will refuse to perform if the Gay Pride march is met with violence.
But he hoped not to have to carry out his threat. "After being one week in Moscow and experiencing the wonderful hospitality of the Russian people we all cannot believe that anything bad will happen during Gay Pride," Heukenroth told Dutch broadcaster NOS. "The Eurovision Song Contest is known to be an international event of love and happiness. We all have to cherish this message [for] the next couple of days."
Tatchell dismissed claims that the planned march was simply a publicity stunt, insisting that it was an essential tool to break down prejudice.
"The Russian government won't listen to polite letters and won't talk to gay campaigners, so protest is the only option," he said. "Visibility helps break down prejudice by showing that gay Russians are just like any other Russians except they happen to love someone of the same sex. There's a need for gay protests while gays face huge scale of homophobic prejudice and discrimination, blackmail and harassment."
Tatchell's assessment was backed up by a recent report from human rights campaigners the Moscow Helsinki Group, which found that Russia's gay and lesbian community faced serious prejudice, particularly at work.
In addition to highlighting problems with homophobia in society, the report also said the authorities displayed a "tolerant attitude towards manifestations of this discrimination", which contribute to "the legitimisation of an ideology of neo-Nazism and religious fundamentalism". N
No comments:
Post a Comment