Well, crap. Here I was, hoping to add Moscow to my lifetime “Places I’ve Marched in Proud Gayness” list, and they go and pull a stunt like this.
This is not from The Onion, and it’s not April Fool’s. Moscow’s city and district courts are in unison that gay pride parades in Moscow will be banned until at least 2112 — 100 years from now.
And just when I’d learned to say “Wanna go take some shirtless fishing pictures, comrade?” in Russian, too. Fiddlesticks.
Steve Clemons goes on to write:
I can see the G8 meeting protest rallies, the UN General Assembly events, the websites taunting Putin and his judges, and more. The gay crowd will harrass and torment and undermine and prevail over those trying to repress them. This ban is a gift.
I don’t know if I’d go that far. If I had to choose between being free to march in a relatively meaningless event like a Pride Parade or having basic civil rights protections, I’d probably go for the latter. I have no especially well-informed idea how life is for gay people in Russia, but the sense I get is that it’s not so hot. As nice as it is to march, I suspect gays and lesbians in Moscow have more important things to worry about.
Who knew the Temples of Syrinx were actually the Kremlin?
(actually, I suppose everyone did)