Moscow official nixes gay rights parade [View All]

[shawmut]

Wed Feb 14, 3:41 PM ET


MOSCOW - A top Moscow official repeated Wednesday that the city will not allow a gay rights parade, echoing the mayor's vocal criticism and saying that homosexuality is bad for your health, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

"There is the hard line of the city authorities and the position of our main faith, the Russian Orthodox Church ... of the inadmissibility of such an event in Moscow," RIA-Novosti quoted the head of the city's international relations department, Georgy Muradov, as saying.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and city authorities barred gay rights activists from staging a parade last year, citing the threat of violence, but activists ignored the ban and were attacked by right-wing protesters and detained by police. Last month, Luzhkov vowed never to allow a gay rights parade, calling such events "satanic."

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"As you know, the sale of alcohol is restricted in many Scandinavian countries. Why not pose the question of removing the limits on alcohol in these countries, of holding a 'parade of alcoholics' in Sweden? They would answer: no, it's bad for one's health, it affects society's morals," RIA-Novosti quoted him as saying.

Muradov said he had "medical proof" that "this form of relations" is harmful to health, the agency reported.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070214/ap_on_re_eu/russia_moscow_gays