For those following Russia LGBT issues, Id like to clarify a couple of things. 1. Pavel Lebedev, the gay activist in Voronezh, was NOT arrested for waving the rainbow flag, as many have reported. He was arrested for jumping the police cordon and running out in front of the torch bearer while waving a rainbow flag. It was a brave and beautiful protest, but the impression that he was standing on the sidelines waving a rainbow flag and detained for this - this is wrong. 2. Maxim Martsinkevich, aka Tesak, was arrested in Cuba and, it appears, will be charged with a hate crime. The hate crime, however, is NOT taking gay youths hostage and humiliating and beating them on camera - while Martsinkevich appears to bear full responsibility for devising and running that movement, his supposed hate crime is shooting a video in which he fantasizes about a German-ruled post-WWII Russia. He will be tried for insulting the sensibilities of WWII veterans. Which, if you ask me, is yet another in a long line of arguments against hate-crimes legislation and prosecutions. But thats a whole separate story.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 16:41:06 +0000
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