Wherefore Pride?
‘Tis the season to be fabulous. Pride celebrations are going on all over the country. Every year someone asks the question, “Is Pride relevant?” Someone complains that it doesn’t adequately represent his “normal,” suburban life. Someone complains about being associated with freaks and weirdos. I supposed you could say it’s a complex issue, but when I read things like this, it becomes really quite simple.
We crossed the square to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Each of us was carrying a bunch of flowers. Unexpectedly, our way was barred by locked gates and lines of police. The Moscow mayor said it would be an insult to Russia’s war dead to allow gays to lay flowers.
As we reached the locked gates and attempted to speak to the police guards, our small group was set upon by 100 anti-gay protesters, mostly hard-right nationalists and Christian fundamentalists. They began shoving, punching, kicking and pelting us with eggs.
Our flowers and rainbow flags were snatched from our hands. They abused us with chants of “No sodomy in Moscow,” “Death to fags,” “Russia is not Sodom” and “Put the pederasts on the iron” (a reference to an ancient Russian method of executing gay men by forcing an iron rod up the anus). Initially, the police did nothing to protect us.
As the authorities attempted to disperse us, we were repeatedly abused and assaulted by gangs of neo-Nazis and skinheads. Two Russians who were merely suspected of being gay were surrounded and given a severe beating.
About 20 of us reassembled on the edge of Manezhnaya Square and attempted to follow the planned Moscow Pride route up Tverskaya Street to the Yuri Dolgoruky monument.
Some Pride marchers did get through. We did not. Our path was blocked by groups of neo-fascists and ultranationalists screaming homophobic threats and hurling smoke bombs and tear gas canisters.1
Why should we celbrate Pride? Because we can.
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