1 Yr Opposition to Russian Gay Pride is Dropped by Russians From 82%-61%

21 September 2010 - Activists of GayRussia organized a protest "Luzhkov - Faggot" in front of Moscow's City Hall. The protest aimed to denounce the Court decision to drop the activist's case against the Mayor who said that Gays are faggots. On the photo Nikolai Alekseev and Alxandr Hodt are bing arrested after attempting to chain themslves to the fence of the City Hall.

53% of Russians (75 million people) heard about our attempt to conduct a Gay Pride in Moscow according to a National Poll conducted by FOM in June 2011.

No one disputes the essential role played by GayRussia on the issue of for freedom of assembly in Russia, not only for LGBT people but also for all citizens, whether they be human rights activists, those who oppose them, or individuals.

GayRussia’s campaign for Moscow Pride is the most emblematic and mediatized initiative of its campaign for freedom of assembly, which over the years included numerous public actions in Moscow, Ryazan, Tambov, and St Petersburg.

It has led to more than 200 events being banned by officials of these cities, and all those bans were upheld by local and appeal Courts—and all the way to the Supreme Court in the case of the first Moscow Pride.

“We can see the positive outcomes of our tireless efforts to make Russia respect article 31 of the Constitution. It is only a few days after we won at the European Court of Human Rights against Russia for banning several Moscow Pride that Moscow authorities allowed for the first time the “Strategy 31 rally” of opposition and human right activists that was banned for 18 months and only a month later, the first ever public action for Equal rights of LGBT people was authorized in St Petersburg”… Nikolai Alekseev

In July 2005 and 2006, a rally in front of the Embassy of Iran to denounce the execution of minors was allowed. In 2007 and 2008, the rally was banned after the application was redrafted to specify that the minors were executed for being gay in the application. In 2008, after Moscow Courts upheld the ban of the rally, GayRussia took the case to the Human Rights Committee of the UN for violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This is the first case brought to the UN against Russia on a LGBT issue. The case has been communicated, and both the applicant and Russia have presented their arguments. The Committee is now expected to announce a decision in the future. Although the decisions of the Committee are not obligatory for Russia, a positive outcome would lead to the first condemnation of Russia by the UN on a LGBT case. It would also set a precedent over the issue of freedom of assembly for citizens of other countries that ratified this UN treaty.

Since 2005, GayRussia’s activists have been banned from conducting over 200 rallies for the rights of LGBT equalities based on various fallacious excuses, such as the impossibility of providing security, and Russian Courts have consistently upheld these bans. In October 2009, GayRussia lobbied the Human Rights Committee while taking part in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Russia, held in Geneva. Activists obtained from the committee the inclusion in their final report that discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation is “systematic.” GayRussia added this finding in its pending cases before the European Court and the United Nations.

GayRussia’s campaign for the rights of freedom of assembly reached beyond Russia’s borders as well, with protests organized by its activists in February 2008 in Strasbourg, at the European Court of Human Rights and in Geneva, at the UN. Rallies in front of the Russian Embassies in London, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Stockholm, and Vienna as well as Russian diplomatic missions in New York, San Francisco, Geneva, and Strasbourg were organized in 2006 by GayRussia’s international partners to support the cause of Moscow Pride.

In October 2010, the Prefecture of Moscow allowed for the first time a picket in front of the office of Swiss Air Lines. Although the protest was not in support of LGBT equality in general, it denounced the role the airline played in the incident that Nikolai Alekseev personally faced at Domodedov Airport a few days before.

GayRussia’s efforts to recourse at the European Court of Human Rights ended successfully in October 2010 when the Court said, in its first decision on a LGBT issue against Russia, that the country violated articles 11, 13 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights by banning Moscow Pride in 2006, 2007 and 2008. This decision is historical for all human rights defenders in Russia, as it is the first judgment on the Law of 2005 on Public demonstration. The Court declared that the law does not offer legal remedy. GayRussia’s activists are now taking the case further—to the Constitutional Court of Russia—with the aim to make the Law of 2005 deemed unconstitutional.

GayRussia’s campaign for Freedom of Assembly was not limited to Moscow. Activists also attempted to organize actions in Tambov and Ryazan. GayRussia’s activists, through the launching of the Slavic Gay Pride movement—the union of Russian and Belarusian Pride organizers—also campaigned in Minsk and in St Petersburg. It is in St Petersburg where GayRussia’s lawyer Dmitri Bartnev won the first-ever case on Freedom of Assembly in Russian Courts against the city hall, who banned a public action connected with the first attempt to hold a Pride in St Petersburg in June 2010. The first-ever public action to be authorized in Russia for LGBT Equality took place in November 2010 with activists of Equality and GayRussia.

Activists of GayRussia have six cases pending at the European Court of Human Rights on the issue of Freedom of Assembly and one case at the UN Human Rights Committee. GayRussia is the most active Russian group in Court on the issue of freedom of assembly in Russia.

As of today, GayRussia’s activists consider their campaign on freedom of assembly successful not only due to the historic decision of the European Court but also because of the positive decisions in St Petersburg and the first action to ever be allowed in the city recently. Of course, a major success would be seen with the authorization of the first Moscow Pride in 2012.

In one year, between April 2010 and June 2011, the opposition to Gay Pride among Russian people went from 82% to 61%.

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