Moscow bans gay parade

May 18th, 2011 - 11:12 am ICT by IANS  

Moscow, May 18 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Moscow’s city government has officially rejected an application to hold a gay pride parade, the mayor’s office said.

“Moscow’s authorities have prohibited the gay pride parade due to a number of complaints,” Moscow’s deputy mayor Luydmila Shevtsova said in a statement.

Representatives of religious groups and the Moscow City Parent Committee had filed complaints against the parade.

The capital’s gay community had expressed hope that a parade would be permitted by new mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

Sobyanin had, however, said in February he was not in favour of the idea.

Former mayor Yury Luzkhov, who was in power for 18 years before being dismissed by President Dmitry Medvedev in September last year, had described gay parades as “satanic”.

In October 2010, the European Court of Human Rights fined Russia for banning gay parades in Moscow. The court in Strasbourg, France, said fears that such marches could provoke violence were unfounded.

–IANS/RIA Novosti
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