Russians talk of fining Madonna $17k for mentioning the gay during her concert

Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 13:37:49 +0400
From: Polina Savchenko

Madonna defends the Gay community during her St. Petersburg Concert

The Pop Star and Gay Icon Madonna who recently held a tribute for Pussy Riot, the feminist punk band, in Moscow, took a step to support the LGBT Community yesterday in Saint Petersburg. The LGBT community is indeed victim of a new homophobic law which prohibits all kind of public demonstrations or publications related to homosexuality, bisexuality or transgenderness.

As promised, Madonna delivered a moving speech between Open Your Heart and Masterpiece in which she praised democracy, love and freedom and compared the LGBT fights to Martin Luther King's fights for equality. She added that gay people should be treated with love and dignity and that it was not right to use religion to promote hate to a certain group.

LGBT organization Coming Out , printed 330 rainbow posters with the saying "No Fear" that were distributed to the crowd. Although some posters were confiscated by security, their display had a huge emotional effect during the show. Many fans raised them during Madonna's speech, and she reacted by saying "No Fear, that's right" before insisting that fear was the basis of all discrimination, and that tolerance could only be guaranteed by love, the opposite of fear. During the performance of "Like A Prayer", while dancers were raising a rainbow flag provided by a member of Coming Out and the Russian LGBT Network, Madonna took a "No Fear" poster from the crowd and raised it for 25,000 people to see. Same as for "Pussy Riot" support in Moscow, she had tattooed her back, this time with "No Fear." Gay bashing scenes from gay demonstrations in Russia, pictures of teenagers who died because of homophobia, and many gay and lesbian kisses were shown during the very political "Nobody Knows Me" Interlude Video.

Madonna's support was extremely moving. Most of the mostly heterosexual crowd reacted positively to her message by raising pink wristbands that were distributed to everyone to support the LGBT community. The LGBT in the audience received Madonna's support with both smiles and tears, and gratified her with the universal message "We love you" at the end of the show.

Author of the "propaganda" law in St. Petersburg, Vitaly Milonov today declared that Madonna broke the law and is planning to charge her with a fine of 500,000 rubles ($17 000).

Director
St. Petersburg LGBT organization Coming Out
+7 (812) 313 9369
+7 (904) 609 9706
http://www.comingoutspb.ru

If everyone someone needed a giant condom put over his house. Read the rest of this post...

Madonna takes on the gay-hating Russian government

In all fairness, the Russian government hates a lot of people. Via Towleroad:

Performing in black lingerie with the words "No Fear" scrawled on her bare back, Madonna urged the audience - most wearing pink wrist bands distributed at the door - to "show your love and appreciation to the gay community".

"We want to fight for the right to be free," she said.

The American singer has turned a two-concert tour into a platform for comment on Putin's Russia.

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Madonna to take on Russian homophobes in upcoming St. Petersburg concert

Oh this should be good.  The Daily Beast reports that when called on to boycott Russia, Madonna came up with a better idea.

It obliges abusers to pay $170 fines, and authorizes brief detentions. Disturbingly, in a country where homosexuality was a criminal offense in the Soviet era, it could well allow some of that mentality back into police work. The law, depending on how it is interpreted, could allow police to grab more or less anyone who said or showed “gay propaganda” to young people. That could be interpreted to include holding hands while walking in public.

After Saint Petersburg, the law was adopted by five more Russian regions and threatened to become federal law, which made some gays think of emigrating from the country to more civilized places.

As for Madonna, celebrated by world’s gay community as an icon, the American star responded the following day on Facebook: “I will speak during my show about this ridiculous atrocity,” Madonna wrote. “I don’t run away from adversity,” she added, calling herself a “freedom fighter.” Both Madonna and, recently, her 15-year-old daughter Lourdes Leon advocate for the legalization of gay marriage in United States.

I have to give her credit. She'll do far more damage to Russia's homophobes, and Soviet left-overs, by actually going through with her concert than by boycotting.  Can't wait to see what she does. Read the rest of this post...

International Olympic Committee explicitly opposes all discrimination (unless you're gay)

At first I thought it might be a bit extreme to demand that the IOC kick countries out of the Olympics that make gay relationships illegal.  Then I read the Olympic charter.

IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau, asked about the appeals, noted that the Olympic Charter "clearly states that any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement."

Not a very good answer, IOC, to quote language that says you shouldn't be doing what you're doing. If anything, that language backs the folks who say you should be dumping anti-gay countries.

And for that matter, then why is the IOC letting Russia ban a Pride House at the 2014 games?

Russia, host of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, has a checkered record on gay rights, and a regional court -- citing a potential threat to Russian society -- has upheld Sochi officials' rejection of a proposed "Pride House" to welcome gays and lesbians at the games.

And what was the IOC's response?  The same BS quote of the Olympic Charter, and then nothing.

As for Russia's "checkered record" on gay civil rights.... St. Petersburg has banned the mention of the word "gay" in public (no word on how they feel about the word "Nazi"), and Moscow just banned Pride for the next 100 years.  Checkered is putting it nicely.

Let's just admit that the Olympics are about corporations, just like everything else in the world today, and put the cute little "we are the world" quotes to rest once and for all. Read the rest of this post...

Moscow bans gay Pride for the next 100 years (seriously)

What a backward hateful third world country.  It sickens me when people who are once oppressed turn and oppress others.  You'd think the Russians might have learned a thing or two about humanity after having survived the Nazis and the Soviets.  You'd think wrong. Read the rest of this post...

Russian gays arrested for simply trying to hold a Pride parade

AP:

Gay activists tried to stage two demonstrations in Moscow on Sunday to demand the right to hold a gay pride parade in the Russian capital, but they were blocked first by Orthodox Christian opponents and then by police, who detained a total of about 40 people from both sides.

The gay activists first gathered outside the city council building, where a few scuffles occurred as their opponents tried to disrupt the demonstration, decrying homosexuality as a sin. After police broke up that protest, another group tried to stage a second protest at city hall, but once again police moved in and detained participants, including prominent gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev.

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Russians convict man of holding sign mentioning gays

I want to criticize the Russians for being homophobic pigs, but look at ourselves?  Dan Savage has to defend himself for the sin of quoting the Bible accurately against people who didn't even know, don't even believe, that the Bible was used to defend slavery, when it in fact was.  People in North Carolina and several other states are on the verge of banning gay relationships in their states' constitutions, in part (at least in North Carolina) to "protect the caucasian race."  Missouri Republicans want to pass a law banning teachers from even mentioning gays.

Things were so much easier when they were clearly the bad guys and we were clearly the good guys. Read the rest of this post...

Gays arrested in Russia for wearing rainbow suspenders

From Coming Out St. Petersburg:

Activists Charged with Illegal Display of Rainbow Suspenders

St. Petersburg, Russia

Today 17 activists were arrested for displaying rainbow flags and other rainbow insignia during the Russian May Day march. LGBT activists made up part of the democratic section of the march, which included over 400 people and represented a number of democratic and human rights groups of St. Petersburg.

Activists displaying rainbow insignia (flags, pins, suspenders), and those carrying signs against homophobia were selectively pulled out of the march and taken to the closest police stations. Claimed reason for detention: propaganda of homosexuality.

After 7 hours of detention, activists were not charged with "propaganda", but with articles of St. Petersburg administrative code 19.3 (non-compliance with police requests) and 20.2 (participation in illegal demonstration) and released.

From the detention protocol:

"...during demonstration, detainee displayed rainbow flags, rainbow suspenders. Listed insignia did not have prior authorization, thereby constituting a violation of regulations for carrying out public demonstrations..."

"The fact that only LGBT rights supporters were detained today is proof the law is working perfectly as it was intended. Its goal is to stop any public LGBT rights activity," says Polina Savchenko, head of LGBT organization Coming Out. Police will use the "propaganda" argument to stop any action and detain its participants. The subsequent court hearings and judgments are immaterial."

LGBT organization Coming Out will continue to provide legal support to the victims of homophobic legislation.

On March 30 "homosexual propaganda" law went into effect in St. Petersburg, imposing administrative fines on the so-called "propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgenderism, and pedophilia" to minors. On April 7th activists were arrested for holding signs "no to silencing of hate crimes against gays and lesbians" and "our family friend is a lesbian, her family is socially equal to ours" and charged with propaganda and non-compliance with police. One activist was found guilty of non-compliance, but the propaganda charge was ignored by the court. As of today, there have been no convictions by the court under this law in St. Petersburg.

When asked, Russian authorities stated numerous times that the "propaganda law" was intended only to protect minors and not for limiting LGBT human rights activity.

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International Olympic Committee tacitly condones Russian discrimination against LGBT athletes at 2014 games

Check out the weasel-y answer from the IOC regarding the Russians banning the games' Pride House because it might threaten the territorial integrity of Russia.  Seriously.  A Russian judge has sided with the Russian government, claiming that if the Olympics again have a Pride House for LGBT athletes, it could force Russia to literally split in two.

But judge Svetlana Mordovina ruled against them saying that Pride House would threaten the growth of the Russian population and therefore risk the country’s ‘territorial integrity’.

You can take the Russians out of the Soviet Union, but I guess you can't take the Soviet soul out of the Russians. Read the rest of this post...