Homosexuality, punished with jail terms in the Soviet Union, was decriminalised in Russia in 1993, but much of the homosexual community remains largely underground as anti-gay prejudice runs deep. In 1999, homosexuality was formally removed from the list of Russian mental disorders..On 17 May 2009, for the International Day Against Homophobia Russian LGBT network organized the «Rainbow flash mob» in Saint Petersburg; this event brought together from 100 to 250 people by various estimations, and the organizers consider it to be the most large-scale action in the whole history of Russia dedicated to the problem of LGBT rights. Also the action in smaller scales has passed in more than 30 cities of Russia.

The Queen Of the Pop Madonna spoke out for gay rights at a concert on Thursday [aug 9,] in St Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin's home town, where activists say a law adopted this year to curb homosexual "propaganda" is discriminatory. 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. In Moscow on Tuesday, she told a crowd she prays for the release of three members of the band Pussy Riot, who prosecutors want jailed for three years for their "punk prayer" criticising Putin on the altar of Russia's main cathedral. She told that the three women, whose trial verdict is to be announced on Aug. 17, had been treated unfairly and suggested they were victims of censorship.

Madonna had promised to use her St Petersburg show to speak out against legislation adopted by the city in March that imposes fines for spreading homosexual "propaganda" that could "damage the health, moral and spiritual development" of minors. On her Facebook page, she called the law a "ridiculous atrocity".

Critics of the law - the model for a bill submitted to the national parliament - say they fear it could be used to clamp down on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, for instance by barring gay rights demonstrations. St. Petersburg police chief Sergei Umnov told local reporters in July that 74 people had been fined so far.

[Without Fear !:]

свернуть