"Homosexuality is not a perversion. Perversion is hockey on grass and ballet on ice!" reads one picket sign, held aloft by a middle-aged man. "Against all forms of discrimination," proclaims another, held by a young woman. "My gender is my choice," says a third.
The scene was Moscow Pride. The year was 2007. This parade for recognition and celebration of gay rights was later violently attacked by anti-gay activists - a scene which has repeated itself basically every year since the event was first organized in Moscow in 2006.
The 2007 Pride rally, like every other year's gay rights event, was unauthorized. Moscow city officials have consistently refused to approve annual gay pride parades, and 2013 is no exception.
Authorities announced last Wednesday that they will not approve gay rights activists' request to hold a parade in the capital on May 25, saying the event would undermine morality and patriotic values. Applications to hold gay rights events in the designated free speech zones in Sokolniki Park and Gorky Park were also turned down.
The government's refusal to allow gay pride events is just one symptom of a broad movement against homosexual rights underway in Russia. Anti-gay sentiment has grown increasingly hostile in recent years, to a point which some critics label it a violation of human rights.
Read more: No more rainbows: anti-gay sentiment rises in Russia | RUSSIA | The Moscow News
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