Russia Gay Pride Demonstrators Attacked, Detained In St. Petersburg (PHOTOS)

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) – Russian police on Saturday detained 14 gay rights activists trying to hold an unsanctioned demonstration in St. Petersburg, as well as one person suspected of attacking the protesters. (Scroll down for photos)

Police detained two groups of activists protesting their lack of rights in two central districts of the city. An Associated Press photographer saw unidentified individuals attack the demonstrators, trying to seize their banners before police moved in.

Attempts to hold Gay Pride rallies almost always end in violence in Russia. Authorities habitually refuse gay rights activists their constitutional right to assemble, particularly in Moscow, on the grounds that other people find it offensive.

"I've seen a lot of things in six years of holding such events in Moscow, but I've never seen such cynicism in St. Petersburg," said Nikolai Alekseyev, Russia's highest profile gay rights activist, who was himself briefly detained.

Activists held their protest beside a monument to city founder Peter the Great, "because Peter the Great founded a city with European values," Yuri Gavrikov, head of the Equality group said Friday. President Dmitry Medvedev has insisted Russians share European values today.

Loading Slideshow

• Police officers detain a gay rights activist during a St. Petersburg protest.

• Russian police on Saturday detained 14 gay rights activists trying to hold an unsanctioned demonstration in St. Petersburg.

• Russia

  Gay rights activists are detained while protesting in front of the statue of the Bronze Horseman in St. Petersburg.

• An unidentified man, left, attacks gay rights activists protesting in St. Petersburg.

• Posters read "Equal Rights" and "Don't worry, homophobia can be cured."

• Russian police on Saturday detained 14 gay rights activists trying to hold an unsanctioned demonstration in St. Petersburg, as well as one other suspected of attacking the protesters.

• A boat carrying a rainbow flag floats on the Neva River during a gay rights activists' protest in St.Petersburg.

Many trumpeted New York's decision Friday to become the sixth and largest U.S. state to legalize gay marriage. France's legislature rejected a similar effort this month.

Elsewhere in Europe, Russian police detained 14 gay rights activists trying to hold an unsanctioned rally in St. Petersburg to demand equal rights – a sign that resistance remains high to gay rights in many parts of the world.

Comments

[Vlad Roudenko]

11:35 PM on 06/29/2011

All Nikolai Alexeyev (third picture) cares about is money. He doesn't really care about gay rights. He is hungry for attention and organizes such idiotic events. Why only 14 people? According to other sources a neo nazi punched someone in the face and the police broke up the fight and arrested everyone. They are sure not going to get any favors from anyone by calling St Petersburg governor an alcoholic on one of the posters. Getting sympathy from people by aggressive provocations such as these is not going to work. It will just get the opposite reaction.

[bluntobject]

10:46 PM on 06/29/2011

Umm, yeah. When I saw the staggering number of marchers in Russia's one and only and (very short) Gay Pride Parade, I wondered aloud -- how long before the Russian counterparts to The Phelps Family show up and crash the party? Looks like it didn't take long for hatred to rear it's ugly head. Russia is still a very scary place for Gays and Lesbians.

[Texasskier]

12:21 PM on 06/27/2011

Russia has been choosing between european and asian cultures for last 10 thousand years. It can be more or less. But this selection can't be done completely. Can you imagine the gay parade in some Middle East country? But it can be organized in Russia like in Germany and it will be repressed in Russia like in Middle East. So it is typical for Russia.

[Vlad Roudenko]

05:07 PM on 06/29/2011

For 10 thousand years, really? The education system in Texas must be even below that of the Third world. You speak complete nonsense. Have you seen any Gay Pride marches in the Middle East and how they get repressed there? I'm guessing you have not. I'm also guessing that you know nothing about the Gay Pride movement in Russia either. This is nothing but a provocation. Seeing the person in the 3rd photo it is beyond any doubt as to what this is. Go back to watching Walker Texas Ranger. That's all you really can do. Your remarks about Russia are not welcomed by anyone.

[Texasskier]

11:28 AM on 06/30/2011

Take it easier. 10 hundred years - of course, it was a misprint.
"Seeing the person in the 3rd photo it is beyond any doubt as to what this is." - what do you mean?

[liberaldummy]

12:10 PM on 06/27/2011

i like Russia's no nonsense approach to pilitical correctness and overall stupidity..this is be the US' downfall

[Robert Galyean]

08:42 PM on 06/27/2011

you are a dummy.

[liberaldummy]

11:50 AM on 06/27/2011

wow quite alot of noise for 2 percent of the population..i guess loud flamboyant mobs do get what they want...

[Vlad Roudenko]

05:09 PM on 06/29/2011

2% really? How did I manage not to see nearly 3 million gays in Russia? Where did you get hat percentage?

[Shiva Lucian]

11:32 AM on 06/27/2011

take the russian fifa world cup 2018 hosting right away...russia dont deserve..ooops i forgot, fifa is corrupted

[beany jo]

10:55 AM on 06/27/2011

I've noticed that some of these more suppressed parts of our planet have these events where the participants appear to be just regular old people. It's sad to have to demand those rights and I admire the courage.
I'm a gay man and have not been into "gay" pride and never participate in gay parades. I am a big advocate of human rights and equality and believe that I deserve the same rights as any other non gay Homo Sapiens. I must admit that I cringe when I see the outlandish costumes and sexual freakitude displayed by my gay brethren at these events. I wonder what it is that they are selling. Gays in the the 21st century need to give up the garish minstrel shows that they use to say "Hey look at me I'm gay". I find drag queens with their clownish mockery of women to be offensive and outdated too. It "sells" the wrong image of who we are as a whole. We need to display an incredible amount of "normality" these days because so much is at stake. I'm not saying that gay people should hide in sewers. I believe that we have the responsibility to "come out" and be counted. We need to be seen as part of the working society. We do not need to be anybodies' stereotype.

[louisnikk]

11:45 AM on 06/27/2011

Well said!

[deb0]

12:47 PM on 06/27/2011

1. These gay protestors are simply being who they are.
2. If you have to "come out" to announce a behavior, that's a personal issue, not one that needs acceptance by everyone else.

[beany jo]

10:17 PM on 06/27/2011

1. Do you mean the people protesting the gays are being who they are?
2. It is important to come out to people with which you have built a relationship with, be it family or work place. This is unless of course your lively hood is at stake.

[Charles OGorman]

09:02 AM on 06/27/2011

I don' understand why you people have to have a gay pride day,parades or other events to proclaim your sexual preference.

I have never had to tell my employer or anyone else what my sexual preference is and I don't care what yours is!
how about we have a straight day parade!,but i'm too busy with important issues that effect mine and my families life

I see no difference between a K.K.K. march and this, it's just a recruiting propaganda program

[Francis Forrester]

09:56 AM on 06/27/2011

Your comments shocked me, for lack of better description. I guess it came from a position of (I hate to use the word, ignorance), not knowing. I'm not gay, and to be honest, I have a very mixed feelings about whether being gay is right myself. But seeing a story like the one coming out of Russia, is very chilling to me.

Russia can be a very brutal place if you're found at the wrong side of the law. Who knows what has happened to these 14 people because they peacefully tried to participate in a demonstration?

I'm worried stiff.

Gays are among us, have been among us, and will continue to be part of us. How to embrace them will be an issue that we have to be able to deal with, perhaps with a similar approach as we have reluctantly been dealing with civil rights issues - that too, not fully settled. What do you do? You cannot advocate casting other human beings into the sea. Humans, by our nature, have shamefully done too much evil to one another already.

Regardless of what our individual or collective positions are, our so-called human civilization is in trouble if we cannot find reasonable solutions to issues of human rights, equality and equity.

[liberaldummy]

11:55 AM on 06/27/2011

and your point is, that 98 percent of the population needs to be subjected to this alternative lifestyle, what about the straight person "human right" to protect their kids from what I see as a perverse and disgusting choice. What a person does behind closed doors is thier right but onces they subject impressionable young children,thats when a line has been crossed, Straight or otherwise.

[Vlad Roudenko]

05:24 PM on 06/29/2011

What a confused reply.... You views of Russia seems to mirror those of British media entirely. Perhaps you should come to Russia and see what a wonderful place it is. It is not this gray and drab place you read about in western newspapers and history books written in the Ministry of Truth. Knowing that it was a pathetic provocation staged by the person in the 3rd photo the response by this article is really unfounded. He regularly throws people under the buss so to speak for financial gain.He certainly does not speak for gays in Russia. He is most likely ridiculed by them.

[Channa]

10:31 AM on 06/27/2011

I think I can answer you, having had the same question myself. I am in the "don't ask, don't care" camp. Gay people have been stigmatized forever. They have been systematically murdered, routinely reviled and treated as subhuman. Consider if Rick Perry or Mitt Romney were confirmed as being gay - it would end their political lives. Coming out of the closet for a gay person is a pivotal event in their lives.

So, for them to come out en masse in a public affirmation of their sexuality is something daring and something that instills a sense of self esteem. I am straight but I have a lesbian sister and we talk about these things sometimes. I used to think the same though. "Where are the straight pride parades?" I think it's just that we don't need the same kind of reinforcement of our sexuality. It's accepted.

[Francis Forrester]

11:20 AM on 06/27/2011

So Channa, what is your sister's sense of emancipation? I believe she will have her own position on this issue. Does she not?

To be honest, even though I'm a straight guy, I don't feel comfortable discussing these gay topics. I feel very sad if they're being bullied in any way.

[Volantiad]

12:36 AM on 06/27/2011

Population of Russia: 141,859,000. Number of Pride Parade Participants: 14. Number arrested for participating in an 'unsanctioned' yet constitutionally guaranteed assembly: 14. If ever I felt brave, I don't any more. What can we do to help those people?

The Global Peace Index rates Russia at 147 out of 153 countries in the world for safety. That means, on earth, there are only 6 countries more dangerous than Russia and 146 that are safer.

"President Dmitry Medvedev has insisted Russians share European values today."

Really?

[liberaldummy]

11:57 AM on 06/27/2011

both gay and straight, be proud behind closed doors, youre both disgusting

[Vlad Roudenko]

05:37 PM on 06/29/2011

LOL Global Peace Index is a joke! What place did US rank on that list? Having actually lived in the US I can tell you that its not all that safe of a place. More murders take place in Boston, a city of less than a million than in St. Petersburg and that's a city of nearly 5 million. Those indexes and other western "rights" groups are a sham. They are constantly biased against Russia while they rank the US among the first in many respects when it is quite the opposite. So much for being objective.

[sf omega man]

11:43 PM on 06/26/2011

Ah, sweet, oppressive Russia... where demonstrators are brutally attacked and detained for speaking their minds... or, what today's conservatives aspire for the future of the United States.

Joe McCarthy must be rolling in his grave.

[Vlad Roudenko]

05:38 PM on 06/29/2011

Way to show your Cold War mentality and ignorance.

[sf omega man]

05:51 PM on 06/29/2011

So Russian mafia .. I mean... state police, attacking gay pride demonstrators is not oppressive?

C'mon man. I love Russia! Russia should stand up and be proud of its gay history, not trying to baton it into the closet. St. Basil's is a fantastically flamboyant, beautiful structure.

US so-called conservatives, on the other hand, haven't done much at all to advance architecture, science, or the common welfare. They're on a cave trek to drag the human race back to the stone age.

[CommonSensible]

11:48 PM on 06/26/2011

i've read that research shows that the majority of peope whom the left labels as 'homophobes' are, in fact, not afraid of gays at all. they just don't like their behavior and pushy agenda.

[DruDeadly]

09:39 PM on 06/26/2011

Gay deserve rights like everyone else hands down. I'm not gay but humans are humans.

[pollclaire]

09:03 PM on 06/26/2011

Democracy under the oligarchs. Keep voting for right-wing politicians.

[provgrays1]

08:56 PM on 06/26/2011

There are no values, only the powerful and the powerless.

[DCmykl]

06:42 PM on 06/26/2011

I wonder how those Russian fascist cops are going to enjoy having their faces posted all over the Internet. : )

[Vlad Roudenko]

05:40 PM on 06/29/2011

Fascist huh? How about those fascists who are imprisoning innocent people in Guantanamo? How about those fascists who are raiding American businesses and rounding up Mexicans and other latinos? Or how about those fascists killing innocent people of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and other places the US is involved?

[Le Fou]

07:33 AM on 07/11/2011

Defensive much?

No one's going to deny that there are a crap ton of people in this world who do wrong(well, surely there are a hand of fools who will), but it does not exempt the actions of others. My grandma told me that 2 wrongs don't make a right, and I believe her.