USA Tour by Russian Gay Leader

The Gay Liberation Network kicks off a national tour by Russian Gay leader Nikolai Alekseev and Andy Thayer. Nikolai Alekseev is Russia's foremost LGBT leader, having initiated the organizing of the first Moscow Pride in 2006. Each year city authorities have violated the Russian constitution by banning the demonstrations, and most years the demonstrators have faced arrests by riot police and violence by neo-fascists and Russian Orthodox Church zealots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Pride). Alekseev himself has been violently arrested on several occasions, including being kidnapped out of a Moscow airport by the authorities for three days last year while en route to Switzerland. Despite the illegal bans placed on them by the authorities, Alekseev's Gay Russia organization has been active in organizing for LGBT rights in many other cities around the huge country, and organized international solidarity protests for LGBTs in other countries (www.gayrussia.ru). While organizing each year's Pride demonstrations to establish the right of LGBTs to demonstrate, Alekseev has also been pursuing protracted legal challenges in the Russian and international court systems with the same goal. Of the many opposition movements in Russia, his was the only one that pursued the struggle into the European court system. The strategy bore fruit last year when the European Court issued a sweeping ruling in Gay Russia's favor. In late September of last year, President Dmitry Medvedev finally fired Alekseev's primary antagonist, the rabidly homophobic Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Between the firing of Luzhkov and the European Court ruling, Russian LGBTs face a unique opportunity this year to finally win the right to demonstrate in Moscow without threat of arrest or violence. Russian authorities are faced with a choice of jeopardizing closer ties to Western Europe by ignoring the ruling, or winning greater international legitimacy by being seen as a nation improving its human rights record. This year's Moscow Pride is scheduled for May 28th. The purpose of the Spring USA tour, organized by the Gay Liberation Network (GLN), is to bring greater international visibility to the Moscow Pride event, and thus reduce the risk of violence and arrests against its organizers. A flood of international protests was key to the release of Alekseev after his kidnapping by the authorities in September 2010. Similarly, heightened international focus on this year's Moscow Pride could help force the Russian authorities to finally live up to the guarantees of their constitution promising freedom of assembly for all, including Russian LGBTs. Joining Alekseev on his USA tour will be GLN's Andy Thayer, who has participated in Pride in Moscow for the past two years and written extensively on the subject.* Thayer is co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network (www.gayliberation.net), a direct action group which focuses on LGBT rights but also supports others groups fighting injustices. *For Thayer's writings on Russia, see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-thayer/why-im-going-to-moscow-fo_b_589114.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-thayer/while-russian-govt-bigots_b_591354.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-thayer/russian-gays-courage-cont_b_593549.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-thayer/how-russian-gay-activists_b_594517.html http://gayliberation.net/gaypride/2009/0518moscowreport.html Other cities in the tour include New York, Dallas, Los Angeles and Palm Springs, CA.

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