Moscow’s influential mayor said on Tuesday the city banned gay activists from holding a parade because it is morally cleaner than the West, which is caught up in “mad licentiousness”.
The gay activists tried to hold their protest against homophobia and discrimination at the weekend despite the ban, but were detained by police, abused by militant Christians and attacked by neo-fascists.
They had wanted to lay flowers at the grave of the unknown warrior, a monument to those who died defeating Nazi Germany, but police blocked their path.
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said such an action would have been a desecration of the sacred monument, and rejected Western criticism of his ban as prejudiced and homophobic.
“Our way of life, our morals and our tradition -- our morals are cleaner in all ways. The West has something to learn from us and should not race along in this mad licentiousness,” he told Moscow radio, according to local news agencies.
“We may have a democratic country, but we live in an organized country and an organized city.”
The protest on Saturday, which was intended as a Gay Pride solidarity event as have become common in Western capitals, degenerated into a scrum with women hurling eggs and fruit at the activists, while shouting “Moscow is not Sodom”.
Riot police arrested several dozen neo-fascist skinheads who wanted to break up the protest.
March called ‘a provocation’
Luzhkov, who has run Russia’s capital almost as a private fiefdom since 1992, said his anticipation of such a public reaction to the gays’ plans had led him to ban the march to ensure the safety of all.
“These gays wanted to lay flowers at the grave of the unknown warrior. This is a provocation. It is desecration of a sacred place,” he said.
He rejected the gays’ argument that the eternal flame is a monument to all those oppressed by fascism.
“These gays go there, and openly go up to the monument. It is a contamination. People burst through and of course they beat them up,” he said.
Gay activists, who were arrested when they arrived at the park with flowers, said the mere fact of holding the protest was a victory.
