Human rights activists accuse Moscow authorities of homophobia for gay parade ban
MOSCOW. May 14 (Interfax) - Human rights activists have criticized Moscow authorities for banning sexual minorities from holding a march on May 25.
"Such bans against peaceful gatherings of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists are unacceptable," Deputy Head of the Human Rights Watch organization's Moscow office Tatyana Lokshina told Interfax on Tuesday.
"The authorities show in such a way that they encourage homophobia and that they themselves are not strangers to it. Such rallies are held in big cities around the world without any problems," Lokshina said.
Russia's oldest human rights activist, Head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva has said that the policy of the Russian authorities regarding sexual minorities resembled the 19th century.
"The whole world is aware that a person with different sexual orientation is the body's peculiarity the person can not be blamed for. They are normal people. It is necessary to simply live and understand: we are these, they are these, and that is it. It is enough to live with notions of the 19th century," Alexeyeva said.
The Moscow Mayor's Office said earlier on Tuesday that it did not plan to allow sexual minorities to hold a march in Moscow on May 25. "From our point of view, holding such events in the city is not necessary," head of the Moscow city administration's regional security department Alexei Mayorov told Interfax on Tuesday.
Mayorov said that the event organizers would be officially informed of the Mayor's Office decision on May 15.
The official said sexual minorities have filed requests to hold pickets, a rally and a march in late May with the Moscow Mayor's Office. "We are considering everything," Mayorov said.
A request for holding a gay parade in the Russian capital on May 25 was submitted to the Moscow Mayor's Office on May 13. Parade organizer, Nikolai Alexeyev, said that the event would be held as a march and a rally.
In the past years, the authorities banned all of the requests of sexual minorities to conduct public events.
On March 14, Mayorov told Interfax that gay parades in Moscow were unwanted. "Firstly, it will be a criminally and socially dangerous event: people from other organizations will come and there will 100% be a conflict," Mayorov said.