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Moscow gay rights violently supressed - video

May 16th 2009 21:30
UPDATE

Moscow police violently prevented the gay pride demonstration:



Please ask the organisers of Eurovision to halt the contest.

Eurovision Director General - Jean Reveillon - ebu@ebu.ch

Stefan Kuerten - Eurovision Operations Department - kuerten@eurovision.net
Jeff Dubin - News & events - dubin@eurovision.net
Svante Stockselius - Song contests unit - stockselius@ebu.ch

END UPDATE

According to daily paper Moskovski Komsomolets (MK), Moscow police are planning to arrest the Moscow Pride leader Nikolai Alekseev today, Friday.

Nikolai has organised a gay pride march for Saturday, one day before IDAHO, the International Day Against Homophobia.

Australian/British activist Peter Tatchell is in Moscow to attend the pride march despite bing bashed at last years march.

Peter Tatchell assaulted in Moscow 2008
Peter Tatchell under attack, Moscow Pride 2008



I spoke with Nikolai on Wednesday for the Rainbow Report: you can download the podcasts parts one and two here.

Part One
Nikolai talks about the gay pride march planned for Saturday, Eurovision Song Contest Final day.
Really Long Link

Russian fascists
Russian rightwingers opposing Moscow Gay Pride 2008


Part Two
Nikolai talks about what it's like to be gay in Putin's Russia.
Really Long Link

Please ask the organisers of Eurovision to halt the contest unless Nikolai is allowed to protest freely, as is his democratic right. Oppose the Mayors ban.

Eurovision Director General - Jean Reveillon - ebu@ebu.ch
Stefan Kuerten - Eurovision Operations Department - kuerten@eurovision.net
Jeff Dubin - News & events - dubin@eurovision.net
Svante Stockselius - Song contests unit - stockselius@ebu.ch

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Rainbow Report - Moscow Special

May 14th 2009 22:25
Nikolai Alexeyev
Russian gay leader Nikolai Alexeyev under attack by far right anti-gay extremists and police in Moscow


Interview with Nikolai Alexeyev, leader of Slavic Pride, speaking from Moscow on the eve of IDAHO and Eurovision.

Thousands of lesbians and gays around the world will be celebrating the Eurovision Song Contest final in Moscow this weekend.

But for Moscows gay community it’s an opportunity to demand their rights before the worlds media. Although it isn’t illegal to be gay in Russia, there is endemic homophobia, and gay-bashing by far-right extremists, skinheads and religious fanatics of the Orthodox Church. Gay life is only possible at all in the major cities, and deeply closeted.

Slavic Pride will take place this year to coincide with the song contest (and the International Day Against Homophobia), with a parade through Moscow on Saturday. Organiser Nikolai Alexeev is inviting all gays and lesbians, their friends and supporters visiting Moscow for Eurovision, to join the locals in the parade. Activists from the USA and Britain have already said they will be there.

Participating is not without risk. Officially, the march has been banned. The British Foreign Office is warning gay and lesbian tourists of potential violence.

This will be the fourth year that a pride march in Moscow will go ahead in spite of a ban. It will probably also be the fourth year that participants are attacked by violent thugs and priests. An anti-gay protest has been given official approval.

The police will, as usual, be present in large numbers, but will probably once again do nothing to protect the marchers. Except that this time there will probably be many members of the world press there, too.

Nikolai is also asking audience members and artists appearing in the Song Contest to wear gay pride symbols in support. The Dutch entry has threatened to boycott the contest if there is anti-gay violence on the streets of Moscow and the authorities fail to protect the marchers.

Listen to Nikolai on the Rainbow Report tonight May 14.

ASK EUROVISION TO HELP

You can do your part: contact Eurovision and ask them to cancel the broadcast if the authorities fail to protect gays and lesbians at the Slavic Pride parade. Ask them to allow demonstrations of support for gay rights by song contest participants.

Eurovision Director General - Jean Reveillon - ebu@ebu.ch

Stefan Kuerten - Eurovision Operations Department - kuerten@eurovision.net

Jeff Dubin - News & events - dubin@eurovision.net

Svante Stockselius - Song contests unit - stockselius@ebu.ch

ALSO TONIGHT

Also on tonights show: Melbourne gets its first gay rugby union club, and the census starts counting married gay couples.

UPDATE: Melbourne Gay Rugby is looking for players, a coach, fundraisers, marketers, administrators and supporters - and a name!

Email melbournegayrugby@gmail.com, SMS 0424 108 708 or check out Melbourne Gay Rugby on Facebook.

The Rainbow Report, Joy 94.9 FM in Melbourne and streaming worldwide www.joy.org.au, 1900 – 2000 hrs Australian Eastern Standard Time. Podcasts available at the website or via iTunes.
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Homos Away in Summer Bay storm

March 29th 2009 05:28
Stormy weather
"Take the lesbian below, Mr Christian!"


Two female characters snogging in a disposable bit of moving wallpaper called ‘Home & Away’ created a tsunami of manufactured outrage last week, redoubled when Channel 7 ‘caved in’ and censored the lezzo liplock.

First a pseudo-Christian nano-group decried the promotion of homosexuality, then gay groups leaped in berating the TV station for its spineless capitulation. Channel 7’s publicity department must be creaming their jeans.

The two soapy characters are called Charlie and Joey, a policewoman and a trawler deckhand: subtle hints that these two ladies might have interests other than those motivating the rest of the women in Summer Bay.

With jobs like that they ought to be quite strong, but their clingy singlets reveal no hint of the muscles needed to haul in nets full of prawns, or subdue determined criminals. And surely their attractively tousled shoulder length manes would be a safety hazard? Not to mention those nails . . . .

No, Charlie and Joey are fantasy porno-lezzos, the sort Mr Hetero imagines sliding between for a hot night of conversion therapy.

Not that the show is exactly a beacon of social realism anyway. Summer Bay is very bleached-blond, Anglo-Saxon and heterosexual – dubbed into German it would have been all the rage in 1940’s Berlin.

It’s annoying to find oneself forced to defend this sort of stereotypical trash, especially when the whole story is just a media beat-up.

The only person truly ‘outraged’ by Charlie and Joey was one Angela Conway, the ‘spokeswoman’ for a previously little-known organisation “Pro Family Perspectives”. Ms Conway is also a leading member of the Australian Family Association, the National Civic Council, and the Festival of Light – all minuscule Christian front groups who big-note themselves with grandiose names, when in reality they are just threadbare Australian glove-puppets spouting the shop-worn bigotry of their American parent organisations.

Conway complained of the sexualisation of the storylines in Home and Away. Clearly teen romance, stalking, unplanned pregnancy, elopement and illicit affairs don’t count. Either that or she doesn’t watch the show.

I don’t watch the show either. In the words of a close friend, I am ‘not the target market’. So why should I care?

In the first place, I detest censorship, of which there is already far too much in Australian television. Programs you would see around 8.30 pm in any civilised country are here banished to the small hours or to pay TV. And if Senator Conroy gets his way, there’s soon to be even more censorship, this time of the internet.

Secondly, a million Australians, not to mention millions more around the world, do watch Home and Away. The program is particularly popular with young people. Even a soft-focus, unrealistic, depiction of love between two members of the same sex would be an improvement on complete invisibility.

Though for a really good storyline, I reckon the producers ought to pop Alf Stewart into Xavier Austin’s bed. Now that really would be worth talking about!
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