Moscow’s city government officially rejected an application to hold a gay pride parade. ‘Moscow’s authorities have prohibited the gay pride parade due to a number of complaints,’ Moscow’s deputy mayor Luydmila Shevtsova stated.
A number of religious groups and the Moscow City Parent Committee are the primary complaint filers in this case.
Moscow’s gay pride parade organizers had hoped the new mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, would approve the application, but he has said that he is not in favor of the event. The organizers have challenged, saying that they plan on holding a parade anyway, and the Moscow Police have said they will cut short any “unlawful actions.”
The previous Mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzkhov, who was Mayor for 18 years, had described gay pride events as ‘satanic’.
Last year, the European Court of Human Rights fined Russia for banning gay parades in Moscow.