Moscow refuses to sanction Pride for ninth year in a row

Gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev vows to proceed with event

For the ninth consecutive year, Moscow authorities have rejected a bid by gay rights activists to stage a Pride parade, The Moscow Times reports.

Parade organizer Nikolai Alexeyev, who indicated that the event application was rejected because of a nationwide gay propaganda law that was enacted in June last year, has said he intends to proceed with the May 31 event, the report notes.

The Times also says that an official with the regional security department cited the anti-gay gag law and concerns about public safety as reasons for prohibiting the parade.

In 2012, Moscow city authoritiesdecision to prohibit gay pride events for 100 years — from March 2012 to May 2112 — was upheld by the city’s highest court. Alexeyev had pledged to seek recourse from the European Court of Human Rights, to which he had turned previously with success. The court has found that the repeated rejections violated freedom of assembly rights and the right to be free from discrimination.

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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