These Russian gays are quite an intense bunch.  After facing brutality at the hands of the skinheads, the Russian Orthodox faithful and the police, they plan to rally again next year. 

"The 27th of May has been for us so far an anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1993 in Russia. But the gay parade in 2006 in Moscow and the situation in which it was held has given much more weight to this date," Nikolay Alexeyev told the Interfax news agency on Tuesday.

Alexeyev, who was one of about 120 gays detained by police Saturday when they attempted to hold a pride parade after Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov refused to issue them a parade permit.

Members of an extremist national group and Russian Orthodox church members attacked the marchers.  At one point a gas canister was tossed at a group of gays.

So the gays remain courageous under fire while the religious faithful turn violent?  How is this a sign of Russian moral superiority a la Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov? 

Shows what he knows.  Here in America our religious thugs don't need to team up with skinheads b/c they are already in bed with the political powers that be. 

As promised, gay activists converged on Moscow to hold the capitol's first gay pride rally in spite of the event being denied a permit and denounced by religious and political leaders throughout Russia.

In preparation for the rally, over 1000 police in riot gear met the activists in Red Square along with hundreds of anti-gay protestors.  In response, police arrested over 120 of the gay activists as they attempted to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

What the police didn't do is protect the peaceful activitsts from the hate-fueled violence of the counterprotestors. 

From Pink News

Volker Beck, a Green member of the German parliament was attacked by 20 religious protesters and punched in the face whilst he was giving a television interview.

?There was no aggression from our side, we were simply there,? Herr Beck told the DPA press agency. ?It is unacceptable that the police offer no protection to gays on the streets.?

Around 100 religious and fascist extremists dressed in black kicked and punched gay activists. ?Moscow is not Sodom!? shouted a group of Russian women clutching religious icons.

"We are Russians. We are Orthodox. These soldiers died so we could live like Russians, not so these people could come here and tell us what to do," one Christian protester told Reuters.

Yet another fine example of the damage of the hate-rhetoric flowly so freely from pulpits around the world.  I wonder how long it will be until Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola teams up with the skinheads to beat down the homos? 

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UPDATE: While this story has not caught the attention of the mainstream media (surprise!), you can follow it through the Washington Blade vis a vis live coverage from Scott Long, Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights program for Human Rights Watch

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At the beginning of the month, we reported on ties between Russian skinheads, the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian Muslims in the Russian ant-gay movement.   Police had to hold back protestors from the three groups trying to disrupt a gay event at a local nightclub.  Meanwhile, Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov refused to issue a permit for a gay pride march, scheduled for this Saturday.

Now a Moscow court has upheld Luzhkov's decision.  And Luzhkov freely acknowledges that the real reason Moscow is the only major world capitol without a pride parade is for morality:

?I believe that such a parade is inadmissible in our country above all for moral considerations. People should not make public their deviations," he said

Well, that's a nifty bit of advice. 

Not content to just verbally demonize homosexuals, Muscovites have taken anti-gay hatred to a level that must be giving Fred Phelps multiple orgasms.

Organizers of a weekend LGBT conference say they intend to march on Saturday despite the ruling. The conference has attracted gay leadership from throughout Europe.

Russian Patriarch Alexy II has denounced the planned festival and parade, and the leader of Russia's Muslims has called for a "violent mass protest" if gay leaders go ahead with Pride celebrations. 

This is an excellent moment to point out that the Christian faction appears to be less violent than the Muslims, a fact that I'm sure many of our wonderful wingnuts here in the US would be quick to exploit.  That's utter bullshit.  The Patriarch should be denouncing those who promote VIOLENT protest, not those who want to conduct a march.  But he doesn't.  Because he is just as much a part of the anti-gay violence as those who are more open about it.  Welcome to the slippery slope of religious based hatred.  Watch your mitre on the way down.

Just for good measure, a group of extreme nationalists attacked an LGBT conference on Friday (remember the time zone difference).  They invaded a speech given by Oscar Wilde's grandson, pelted him with eggs and sprayed an unidentified gas in the room.  There were no reported injuries.  And the conference resumed.

From the site Gay Russia

The Moscow Gay Pride Festival will not be cancelled CLICK FOR PROGRAM

From Raw Story comes news that Iraqi police accused a 14 year old child of corrupting the community because he had sex with men. His punishment was to be dragged from his family's home and shot more than 4 times. 

The child's name is Ahmed Khalil.

According to international lgbt rights group OutRage! Ahmed, like too many children in our world, was prostituting himself for money to help his impoverished family.

OutRage reports that the police have been infiltrated by the Shia paramilitary Badr Corps which has been violently enforcing Sharia law.  The Shia spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has issed a fatwa against homosexuals.

Ahmed was being sexually exploited by adult men in his community.  To feed his family.  And, so, he was executed. 

Local Iraqi gay activists are working to rescue children forced by poverty into selling their bodies and documenting the increase in homophobic executions. 

Visit the Iraqi LGBT UK site for more information.