Approximately 300 LGBT activists take part in "Rainbow Over St. Petersburg" flash mob
I guess this goes under "my home city is awesome," albeit for a different reason. It's not because of the architecture (which remains pretty damn awesome), but because, on May 17, LGBT activists managed to conduct a flash mob, and nobody got arrested. The same thing, unfortunately, couldn't be said for Moscow, where 17 activists were arrested. Per OVD-Info, 20 policemen were involved in the arrests.
Remember - the "gay propaganda" law was passed in St. Petersburg years before the federal law was introduced. And yet, in my city, it went peacefully.
A few excerpts from Gay.ru's coverage of the event.
Approximately 300 LGBT rights activists gathered together in a "Rainbow flashmob" in St. Petersburg at the Field of Mars. According to the organizers, the event went without incident. It ended with over 200 multicolored baloons launched into the air.
[...]
"Love is stronger than hate," "This is our city" and "We love our children" - these and other slogans were held by people that gathered together under the rainbow flag at St. Petersburg's Field of Mars.
Among the demands at the rally - a demand for an immediate government response to the beating of LGBT activist Alexandr Ermoshkin. As we previously reported, this morning [on May 17], Ermoshkin was attacked by an unknown assailant before the start of the "Rainbow over Amur" flashmob. The assailant sprayed Ermoshkin with gas and hit the activist on the head with a heavy object.
The speakers at the St.Petersburg rally included Gulya Sultanova (organizer of Bok-o-Bok (Side by side) LGBT film festival), Svetlana Zaharova of Rossiyskaya LGBT-set'(the Russian LGBT Network), citizen activist Maksim Ivantsov, Kseniya Kirichenko (LGBT rights lawyer with Vyhod (Exit) group) and Yuri Dzhibladze (of Moscow's Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights).
"Today, all of us - so brave, so diverse and so beautiful - gathered here today at the Field of Mars," said Zaharova. "And right now, equally brave and beautiful people are going out there for events like this one all across the country. They walk to show that we are here, and we are not afraid. Today, the rainbow flashmobs already happened in Narodsk and Habarovsk, and there will be flash mobs in Murmansk, Arhangeslsk, Krasnodar, Tomsk, Omsk, Tyumen and many other cities."
"Lesbian and bisexual women are specially vulnerable against homophobic and transphobic persecution that, unfortunately, is present in our city," noted Kirichenko.
"The solidarity within the civil society gives us hope for real changes," said Dzhiblaze. "More and more people within the LGBT community understand that homophobia, transphobia and other forms of xenophobia are our common problem, and a problem for the entire society. In the last few years, the LGBT rights movement became an important part of a broad rights movement within Russia. The fight against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is increasingly becoming part of civil rights mainstream. I hope that the voice of LGBT activists will sound louder on a wide range of human rights issues in our country, and that it will be heard by others. Solidarity and mutual aid - that is the most important response to hatred, intolerance and violence."
The day before, people affiliated with a conservative, homophobic city MP Vitaliy Milonov demanded that the [city] government ban the event on the grounds that it violates [the "gay propaganda" law]. LGBT activists were afraid of provocations. But none happened. That said, Milonov's supporters observed the flashmob from the distance, and Milonov's wife was spotted among them. She, the LGBT rights acivists said, received a symbolic present - a sucker shaped like the head of her homophobic husband. The opponents of LGBT activists shouted insults at the government that declined to ban the "sodomite" event.
The police ensured that the event went peacefully. Some of the participants were escorted to the nearest subway station, and there were some heated exchange of words with homophobes. Everybody else went home in buses chartered ahead of time.
Keep in mind that many activists involved in the flashmob were straight. And, by the looks of photos, many were younger than me.
And I'm honestly astonished that both the city government and the police didn't do anything to stop the event.
Well done, fellow St. Petersburgians. Well done.
Remember - the "gay propaganda" law was passed in St. Petersburg years before the federal law was introduced. And yet, in my city, it went peacefully.
A few excerpts from Gay.ru's coverage of the event.
Approximately 300 LGBT rights activists gathered together in a "Rainbow flashmob" in St. Petersburg at the Field of Mars. According to the organizers, the event went without incident. It ended with over 200 multicolored baloons launched into the air.
[...]
"Love is stronger than hate," "This is our city" and "We love our children" - these and other slogans were held by people that gathered together under the rainbow flag at St. Petersburg's Field of Mars.
Among the demands at the rally - a demand for an immediate government response to the beating of LGBT activist Alexandr Ermoshkin. As we previously reported, this morning [on May 17], Ermoshkin was attacked by an unknown assailant before the start of the "Rainbow over Amur" flashmob. The assailant sprayed Ermoshkin with gas and hit the activist on the head with a heavy object.
The speakers at the St.Petersburg rally included Gulya Sultanova (organizer of Bok-o-Bok (Side by side) LGBT film festival), Svetlana Zaharova of Rossiyskaya LGBT-set'(the Russian LGBT Network), citizen activist Maksim Ivantsov, Kseniya Kirichenko (LGBT rights lawyer with Vyhod (Exit) group) and Yuri Dzhibladze (of Moscow's Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights).
"Today, all of us - so brave, so diverse and so beautiful - gathered here today at the Field of Mars," said Zaharova. "And right now, equally brave and beautiful people are going out there for events like this one all across the country. They walk to show that we are here, and we are not afraid. Today, the rainbow flashmobs already happened in Narodsk and Habarovsk, and there will be flash mobs in Murmansk, Arhangeslsk, Krasnodar, Tomsk, Omsk, Tyumen and many other cities."
"Lesbian and bisexual women are specially vulnerable against homophobic and transphobic persecution that, unfortunately, is present in our city," noted Kirichenko.
"The solidarity within the civil society gives us hope for real changes," said Dzhiblaze. "More and more people within the LGBT community understand that homophobia, transphobia and other forms of xenophobia are our common problem, and a problem for the entire society. In the last few years, the LGBT rights movement became an important part of a broad rights movement within Russia. The fight against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is increasingly becoming part of civil rights mainstream. I hope that the voice of LGBT activists will sound louder on a wide range of human rights issues in our country, and that it will be heard by others. Solidarity and mutual aid - that is the most important response to hatred, intolerance and violence."
The day before, people affiliated with a conservative, homophobic city MP Vitaliy Milonov demanded that the [city] government ban the event on the grounds that it violates [the "gay propaganda" law]. LGBT activists were afraid of provocations. But none happened. That said, Milonov's supporters observed the flashmob from the distance, and Milonov's wife was spotted among them. She, the LGBT rights acivists said, received a symbolic present - a sucker shaped like the head of her homophobic husband. The opponents of LGBT activists shouted insults at the government that declined to ban the "sodomite" event.
The police ensured that the event went peacefully. Some of the participants were escorted to the nearest subway station, and there were some heated exchange of words with homophobes. Everybody else went home in buses chartered ahead of time.
Keep in mind that many activists involved in the flashmob were straight. And, by the looks of photos, many were younger than me.
And I'm honestly astonished that both the city government and the police didn't do anything to stop the event.
Well done, fellow St. Petersburgians. Well done.