Queer & Loathing

I was shocked and saddened by a story I read about on the news recently.

A group of gay rights activists got violently assaulted by neo nazis groups last week while marching in the streets of Moscow to protest against a ban on a gay pride march. The police did nothing at first, then decided to beat up the victims and arrest them. The victims also included some Euro MPs and Peter Thatchel, an unstoppable British gay right activists.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, I have read loads about it since and realised than homophobia is rife throughout the whole of Eastern Europe, anti discriminatary laws are non existents or not respected, homophobic attacks are frequent, the general opinion is totally anti gay, due to a mixture of strong religious beliefs and a strong popular support for family values groups, with Poland being the worse offender. The Polish president is the former mayor of Warsaw and had banned the gay pride at the time, a decision that was overturned by the UE, yet he is now planning to appeal.

I have always been fascinated by Eastern Europe, I love the culture, the architecture in general, the communist legacy... This put me right off going as I was planning on.

This cannot stand! I cannot believe that this is happening in Europe. We mustn't be complacent with this sort of behavior. A recent survey showed that more than 78% of the British public would not mind having a gay child, and more than 80% said more should be done to protect gay rights, we are so lucky to live in a tolerant country, I can't believe some of our close neighbours still have to put up with such horrific intolerance. We must stop the generalised promotion of hate.

Act now! Contact Amnesty International's Russian local office, contact the European parliament, get in touch with Stonewall, a British gay right organisation. I beleive it is especially important that the European parliament puts pressure on Poland to clean up its act, it cannot just enjoy from the economic benefits of joining the UE without having some responsabilities as well, such as the respect of basic human rights.

I wish I knew how to start an online petition, in the meantime, click on those links and make your voice heard!

https://www.secure.europarl.europa.eu/parliament/public/citizensMail/secured/cmRequest.do?language=EN

http://www.stonewall.org.uk/

http://web.amnesty.org/contacts/contact_us/eng-rus