Italian activist and former MP Vladimir Luxuria was reportedly detained for a second time within a 24-hour period for protesting Russia’s gay-propaganda law, the International Business Times (IBT) reports.
The IBT report says plainclothes officers stopped Luxuria, who was wearing a rainbow-coloured dress, as she went into the Shayba Arena to watch a hockey game. The officers also detained two Italian journalists.
Nataliya Vasilyeva, a Moscow correspondent for the Associated Press (AP), tweeted that Luxuria was “merely dressed in rainbow colours.”
Luxuria told media that she was first arrested Feb 16 for bearing a banner that read, “Gay is OK” in Russian and was subsequently released in the early hours of Feb 17. While authorities warned her against displaying gay-friendly slogans in public at the time of that detention, Luxuria said, she nevertheless promised to continue to speak out against the anti-gay gag law.
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