Another Reason to Hate Moscow

The coverage isn't very detailed-- there will probably be tons more information within the day (I'll have to remember to check the chat on gayrussia.ru or gay.ru in the next day or so), but basically the first Moscow gay pride march (which, by the way, is translated as either "gay procession" or "gay parade") was a bust and there were bloodied noses and arrests and no festive gay parade to speak of. Just about 50 pro-gay folks and over 100 anti-gay folks and lots of police who were not there to protect the former, and maybe weren't there to protect the latter either.

I have been in alternating states of denial and stomach knots over this announced visibility action. I'm glad I wasn't there, to be honest. The Western European gay demagogues who put themselves on the front line of this Russian-led action aren't the people I hold in the highest esteem as tactical activists. But some part of me knows this needed to happen, and while in some sense it may have set the movement back in terms of public acceptance, in another sense I think it will have long-term positive effects, making the het community wake up and smell the hatred.

But don't count on me to be wearing my rainbow beads on the streets of Moscow anytime soon. In fact don't count on me going to Moscow anytime soon, period.