federal law

Description

Dozens of activists at a gay pride march in Moscow have been arrested by Russian police. Authorities said at least 30 gay rights campaigners were being held after defying a ban on the protest. City officials had promised the march would be "thwarted" and that protesters faced being arrested and fined. But activists ignored the threats and unfurled banners denouncing the Kremlin-backed homophobic legislation in front of Russia's lower house of parliament. As police made arrests, some protesters were attacked by Orthodox Christian vigilantes carrying icons and crosses. The action came after the torture and murder of a young man in Volgograd focused attention on the issue of homophobia in Russia and what human rights groups claim is an increasingly dangerous situation. Vladislav Tornovoi, 22, was found dead earlier this month in a children's playground outside the block of flats where he grew up. He had been stripped, abused with beer bottles, and beaten with a concrete block. His killers then tried to set his body on fire. The two men arrested for his murder were his friends, one of them has known him since childhood. They had been drinking together that night. Investigators say one of the men confessed that they had killed him because he told them he was gay. A police video shows one of the suspects being brought back to the scene and asked to demonstrate, using a mannequin, how he attacked his friend. When a detective asks him why, he replies: "Because he said he was a fag". Mr Tornovoi's father Andrei told Sky News he had to bury his son in a closed casket - that his injuries were so severe the doctors advised him against viewing his body. The post-mortem recorded the cause of death as blunt trauma to the head, but also noted serious internal injuries and genital mutilation. But he refuses to believe his son could possibly have been gay - to suggest otherwise, he told us, dishonours his memory. "It was a shock when his friends and relatives heard that he was gay. What are you talking about, how can he be gay? He was living a normal life," he said. Some of Mr Vladislav's friends have also insisted that he could not have been gay, that his killers invented his drunken confession to try to justify what they had done, and elicit public sympathy. One of his former classmates said the suspects have been congratulated on various blogs and Russian websites. Valeriya Goran explained: "People wrote 'less gays - more happiness', 'These guys who killed our Vlad were right'." Volgograd is a tough, industrial city, far from the skyscrapers and sports cars of the capital Moscow. In what was once known as Stalingrad where they are proud of their Soviet history. The schoolchildren here still take their solemn turn to guard the eternal flame - they are taught that this was where the Red army defied the German onslaught, to secure victory in the Great Patriotic War. But in modern Russia, their government has decided these children don't need any education about gay rights. In order to 'protect their morality', the country's parliament is in the process of passing a federal law that will deem all such information 'homosexual propaganda', and punishable by a hefty fine. It is unlikely to challenge attitudes in a country where, according to the latest polls, more than three quarters of the population already think homosexuality is either a bad habit, a disease or the result of trauma. Some 73% said the state should suppress publicly gay behaviour. Russia: Gay Rights Activists Arrested At Rally Russia: Gay Rights Activists Defy Rally Ban Dozens of Russian gay rights activists detained Russian police detain activists, foes at gay rally Russia: Gay Rights Activists Arrested At Rally Russia: Gay Rights Activists,Gay Rights Activists,Russia Gay Rights Activists,Russian Russian gay rights activists detained,gay rights activists detained,Russian gay detained,Russian gay ,Russian gay rightsgay activists , gay rights deta...