Moscow mayor bans pride parade, calls it “Satanic”

By Ruth Schneider, 365gay.com
01.26.2010 11:57am EST

Gay activists in Russia are not curbing plans for a Moscow gay pride event in May despite comments made by the city’s mayor. The ban the mayor imposed is not stopping them either.

“We haven’t permitted such a parade and we won’t permit it in the future,” said Moscow mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov, the Interfax news agency reported, according to The New York Times.  “It’s high time that we stop propagating nonsense discussions about human rights, and bring to bear on them the full force and justice of the law.”

It’s not the first time the mayor has banned what he called “satanic” parades. His first ban on the event dates to 2007.  In 2008, the mayor implied pride parades spread HIV/AIDS. And last year, dozens were detained by Moscow police after taking part in gay pride activities.

The mayor’s homophobic rhetoric seems to be more vitriolic this year and calls for harsher measures to deal with Moscow’s gay community.

“For several years, Moscow has experienced unprecedented pressure to conduct a gay pride parade, which cannot be called anything but a Satanic act,” ABC reported he told Interfax. “We need a social whip or something like that, not a liberal ginger cake.”