A request from LGBT activists to hold a gay-pride march in honor of Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst has been turned down by City Hall.
The parade, scheduled for May 27, would have seen bearded men and women take to the streets in celebration of the cross-dressing Austrian singer Wurst, who came in first at the annual song competition in Denmark last Saturday.
Wurst's victory caused outrage among some Russian politicians with St. Petersburg lawmaker Vitaly Milonov threatening to pull Russia out of the contest, saying the competition propagandized homosexuality.
Nikolai Alexeyev, the prominent rights activist and founder of Moscow's gay-pride movement, said the decision not to allow the march on May 27 — 21 years to the day since consensual same-sex activity was decriminalized in Russia — would be appealed in court, website Gay Russia reported Thursday.
Alexeyev also said organizers were planning to notify the authorities on Friday of another gay-pride parade planned for May 31.
Moscow authorities have refused to grant permission for a gay-pride parade every year since 2006— when the first request was filed — and in June 2012 enacted a 100-year ban on such marches.
If authorities forbid the gay-pride parade, organizers would combine the 'bearded march' and the annual gay-pride parade into one event, which would take place on May 31, Alexeyev was quoted as saying.
The European Court of Human Rights has previously ruled that the authorities' refusal to allow gay-pride parades in Moscow is unlawful, with five more cases pending before the European court in Strasbourg.
See also:
Putin Ally Lambasts Western Values Embodied by Conchita Wurst
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