モスクワ市幹部：ゲイパレード不許可の意思を改めて強調

Report: Moscow official stresses city will not allow gay rights parade
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
MOSCOW

Moscow will not allow a gay rights parade this spring, a senior city official said Wednesday, and he equated homosexuality with alcoholism, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

The city's mayor had previously said the event would not be held.

"There is the hard line of the city authorities and the position of our main faith, the Russian Orthodox Church ... of the inadmissibility of such an event in Moscow," RIA-Novosti quoted the head of the city's international relations department, Georgy Muradov, as saying.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and city authorities barred gay-rights activists from staging a parade last year, citing the threat of violence, but activists ignored the ban and were attacked by right-wing protesters and detained by police. Last month, Luzhkov vowed never to allow a gay rights parade, calling such events "satanic."

Russian gay activists pledged to hold a march in May.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone said last month that he strongly opposed a ban, and RIA-Novosti quoted Muradov as saying Luzhkov expects to face criticism over the issue at a Feb. 27-28 meeting with the mayors of London, Paris and Berlin.

In an attack on what he said was criticism from the Swedish ambassador, Muradov equated homosexuality with alcoholism and drew a comparison meant to suggest the ban was aimed to protect the heath and well-being of society.

"As you know, the sale of alcohol is restricted in many Scandinavian countries. Why not pose the question of removing the limits on alcohol in these countries, of holding a 'parade of alcoholics' in Sweden? They would answer: no, it's bad for one's health, it affects society's morals," RIA-Novosti quoted him as saying.

Muradov said he had "medical proof" that "this form of relations" is harmful to one's health, the agency reported.