Russia

MOSCOW — A Russian teen has been released from the Marshak drug rehabilitation facility after spending 12 days in the institution after being forcibly admitted by his traditionalist father, who was angered when he came out as openly gay earlier this month. Ivan Kharchenko, 16, was released after friends and supporters staged an improvised siege […]

WASHINGTON — Russia is openly distancing itself from language included in a joint statement released by the G8 Foreign Ministers Meeting Chairman Thursday after a meeting of the G8 Foreign Ministers in Washington.

Police in the Russian city of St. Petersburg arrested two gay rights activists this week, the first such arrests for violating a controversial new law that bans the “promotion of homosexuality” to minors. The two men, Alexei Kiselyov and Cyril Nepomnyashiy, were protesting Thursday in front of St Petersburg’s Palace of Youth Creativity, a government-run […]

MOSCOW — Russian lawmakers are considering a bill that would impose fines for spreading gay “propaganda” among minors, a measure that is similar to legislation adopted in February in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city.

MOSCOW — LGBT activists in Russia are planning a campaign to boycott the Russian airline Aeroflot following a report that a gay flight attendant was forced by the airline to enter into a heterosexual marriage or face losing his job.

A small group of LGBT Russians have taken their protest against laws intended to silence their movement to every region — and on Wednesday night they produced images of their protesting arrest in front of the Kremlin.

MOSCOW — As tens of thousands of protesters braved sub zero temperatures across the Russian Federation last week to protest against the alleged election fraud and corruption by the Putin led government, demanding more freedom and democracy, leading Russian LGBTQ activists claimed that the opposition movement leadership excluded them.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is to be quizzed directly tomorrow over anti-gay laws. The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, told activists on Tuesday that she would raise the discriminatory laws at the EU-Russia summit.

In November 2011, St. Petersburg shocked the world. Legislative Assembly of one of the world’s cultural capitals approved in its first reading the bill which outlaws promotion of homosexuality, transsexuality and pedophilia to minors…

St. Petersburg’s parliament on Wednesday said it would review a controversial bill banning so-called “gay propaganda that targets children.” The law — which has been slammed by critics as too discriminative — has been postponed in order to clarify its wording.

Russia’s second city has passed a law banning so-called “gay propaganda.” The law, which has been rushed through the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, prohibits so-called propaganda of “sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism, and pedophilia to minors.”

Two regions of Russia – Arkhangelsk and Ryazan – have passed laws banning what they call gay “propoganda” — laws that have been deemed constitutional by Russian courts despite the chilling of free speech and the attack on LGBT organizing, and ability to protest that they represent. Now the St. Petersburg region wants to introduce a similar law.

MOSCOW — Police detained dozens of anti-gay protesters and gay rights activists during a gay pride rally in central Moscow on Saturday.

Russian police have arrested at least 14 LGBT activists for holding a unauthorized gay pride demonstration in St Petersburg on Saturday.

The U.S. Department of State on Sunday issued a statement in response to the arrest of 34 people during a unauthorized gay pride cebration in the center of the Russian capital.

MOSCOW — Russian Interior Ministry Troops and Moscow Special Tactical Militia (police) arrested 34 people during an unauthorized gay pride parade in the center of the Russian capital Saturday.

Just weeks after organizers had been told they would be permitted to hold the first ever gay pride parade in the Russian capital, Moscow authorities on Tuesday rejected their application, citing a risk of public disorder.

Moscow authorities gave permission on Tuesday to allow the first ever gay pride parade to be held in the Russian capital.

Russia’s top gay-rights activist says he was kidnapped and pressured by his captors to withdraw a complaint against Moscow authorities from the European Court of Human Rights. Nikolai Alekseyev resurfaced early on Saturday in Moscow after being arrested at the capital’s Domodedovo airport late on September 15 as he prepared to board a flight to […]

Russian police on Saturday detained at least five gay rights activists in a public courtyard in St. Petersburg, allegedly for holding an unsanctioned gay pride rally reports AFP.